0 


JOHNA.SEAVERNS 


DnMnito 


9090  014  531    632 


Webster  Family  Library  of  Veterinary  Medicine 
Cummings  School  of  Veterinary  Medicine  at 
Tufts  University 
200  Westboro  Road 
North  Grafton,  MA  01536 


I  received  a  letter  from  a  friend  in  El  Paso  (Page  51) 


VETERINARY  MEDICINE  SERIES 
No.  11 


THE 

ITINERANT  HORSE 
PHYSICIAN 

BY 

MART  R.  STEFFEN,  M.  D.  C. 

Author  Special  Veterinary  Therapy,  Special  Cattle  Therapy,  Etc. 


Chicago 
AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  VETERINARY  MEDICINE 

1916 


3 


1 


Copyright  1916 

By 

D.  M.  CAMPBELL 


Introduction  by 
Chapter  I 

Chapter  II 

Chapter  III 
Chapter  IV 
Chapter  V 
Chapter  VI 
Chapter  VII 
Chapter  VIII 
Chapter  IX 
Chapter  X 
Chapter  XI 
Chapter  XII 


Chapter 
Chapter 
Chapter 
Chapter 
Chapter 
Chapter 
Chapter 
Chapter 
Chapter 


XIII 

XIV 

XV 

XVI 

XVII 

XVIII 

XIX 

XX 

XXI 


CONTENTS 

Page 
the  Publisher 7 

Early    Training    vs.     Natural     In- 
|     clination    9 

A  Practice  Won  and  Lost  in  Mil- 
waukee       15 

A  New  Start  in  the  Great  Southwest  17 

Practice  in  Texas 25 

With  Uncle  Sam 29 

Back   to   Milwaukee 43 

I  leave  for  Texas  Again 45 

In  Practice  at  Houston 47 

El    Paso 53 

Mexican    Practice 63 

A  Town  Day  in  Oklahoma 73 

How    I    Began    a    Regular    Tramp 
Existence    83 

In  the  "Abilene"  Country 93 

Unfair    Competition 103 

Farewell  to  Abilene 109 

Dr.  Asa  Turns  Up 115 

I  Get  the  Gold  Fever 121 

"Pastures    New" 125 

Idaho    135 

We  Make  a  Hit 145 

Our  Practice  Prospers 151 

5 


6  CONTENTS. 

Page 
Chapter  XXII  We  Get  a  Raw  Deal 157 

Chapter  XXIII        A  Sudden  Departure 163 

Chapter  XXIV         My  Brother  Files  a  Claim 167 

Chapter  XXV  We   Go   on   a   Loafing  Tour 169 

Chapter  XXVI         South  Dakota  Again 171 

Chapter  XXVII       Back  to  Government  Service 179 

Chapter  XXVIII     The  Teachings  of  Travel 187 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

The  experiences  of  the  Itinerant  Horse  Phy- 
sician as  recorded  in  the  following  pages  can 
never  again  be  duplicated,  for  matters  veterinary 
have  changed  for  the  better  throughout  the 
regions  he  traversed.  Still  the  deplorable  condi- 
tions dependent  upon  unregulated  veterinary 
practice  of  unqualified  men  calling  themselves 
veterinarians,  is  yet  a  serious  problem  in  far  too 
many  localities  and  states ;  and  this  work  cannot 
fail  to  help  solve  that  problem  by  placing  vividly 
before  the  whole  profession  and  others  interested 
the  real  calamity  that  unqualified  veterinarians 
constitute  to  the  live  stock  industry.  Never  before 
has  the  evil  of  the  charlatanic  veterinarian  been 
portrayed  in  such  glaring  ugliness  or  condemned 
so  tellingly. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  the  author  or  the 
publisher  hold  out  the  example  of  the  Itinerant 
Horse  Physician  for  the  emulation  of  the  young 
practitioner;  rather  is  it  to  show  the  folly  of 
believing  the  largest  and  ripest  berries  are  always 
to  be  found  on  the  next  bush.  But  along  with 
considerable  information  of  a  scientific  nature, 
many  a  lesson  in  self-reliance  can  be  gleaned 
from  these  pages  that  will  stand  the  young  prac- 
titioner in  good  stead  when  he  faces  that  greatest 
problem  of  a  veterinary  practice — the  public. 

The  historical  value  of  this  record  of  expe- 
riences of  the  Itinerant  Horse  Physician  is  not 


8  INTRODUCTION 

to  be  minimized.  Here  we  have  delineated  in  the 
inimitable  style  of  the  author  the  evolution  of 
farriery  into  the  profession  of  veterinary  medi- 
cine, concurrently  with  the  attainment  of  pro- 
fessional accomplishments  in  older  parts  of  the 
country,  of  which  every  veterinarian  may  be 
proud. 

The  historical  value  of  the  work  and  the  inter- 
est which  it  arouses  are  enhanced  not  a  little  by 
the  punctilious  accuracy  of  the  author  as  to 
places  and  dates ;  by  the  fact  that  he  has  neither 
overdrawn  nor  underdrawn  in  his  description  of 
occurrences  and  by  the  unusual  realism  of  the  pen 
pictures  of  his  characters.  In  only  a  few  cases, 
and  then  only  for  very  obvious  reasons,  have  fic- 
titious names  of  persons  been  employed. 

The  Publisher. 
Chicago,  April,  1916. 


CHAPTER  I 


EARLY  TRAINING  VS.  NATURAL  INCLINATION 

My  father  was  in  the  tobacco  business.  When 
I  was  born  he  began  to  make  plans  for  me,  his 
first  son,  to  follow  in  his  footsteps,  and  had  vis- 
ions of  an  immense  project  in  his  line  which  was 
eventually  to  make  me  the  tobacco  king  of  the 
universe. 

What  I  know  about  psychology  is  but  little; 
however,  I  believe  his  plans  were  knocked  into  a 
cocked  hat  at  the  very 
moment  when  he  allowed 
my  first  Santa  Claus  to 
bring  me  for  my  first 
Christmas  on  earth  a 
stuffed  specimen  of  the 
equine  species. 

As  I  have  already  re- 
marked, my  knowledge 
of  psychology  is  very 
limited,  but  I  do  believe 
that,  with  the  plans  he 
made  for  me  when  I 
made  my  appearance  in 
his  family,  he  should 
have  picked  old  Santa's  stock  over  a  little  more 
carefully,  and  his  first  order  for  me  should  have 
been  a  wooden  Indian. 

While  I  lived  with  my  father  eighteen  years, 
our  home  was  on  the  western  limits  of  the  city  of 
Milwaukee.  A  few  blocks  from  our  home  lived  an 


I  early  showed  a  predilection 
for  horses 


10        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

eccentric  old  man,  who  folks  thereabouts  called 
"Cowboy  Charlie."  He  made  a  good  living  by 
trading  horses  and  by  taking  city  horses  for 
pasturage  at  a  couple  of  dollars  the  month.  He 
was  a  sharp-witted  old  fellow  and  square  and 
broad-minded  to  a  fault.  He  had  received  a  good 
education  in  the  old  country  and  had  gravitated 
to  the  level  of  a  horse  jockey  as  the  result  of 
domestic  disturbances  induced  by  a  flighty  wife. 

Here,  with  old  Charlie,  I  spent  my  holidays 
and  evenings  after  school.  When  my  compan- 
ions of  the  day  were  playing  ball  or  other  games 
I  was  with  old  Charlie,  breaking  broncos  or 
swapping  horses. 

When  I  had  finished  school,  my  father  took 
the  bull  by  the  horns,  so  to  speak,  and  placed  me 
in  the  wholesale  leaf  tobacco  house,  where  I  was 
to  get  my  preliminary  training  for  the  work  he 
had  outlined  for  my  future  career.  While  I 
worked  at  this  place  I  kept  up  my  friendship  with 
old  Charlie  and  evenings  and  Sundays  were  spent 
in  his  company,  and  there,  to  old  Charlie,  I  made 
my  protests  against  the  work  which  my  father 
was  forcing  me  to  take  up,  and  which  was  not  to 
my  liking.  Every  night  we  would  talk  about  it 
and  old  Charlie  sympathized  with  me  always. 

When  I  had  been  about  a  year  in  the  leaf 
tobacco  house  I  began  to  be  so  dissatisfied  that 
every  day  became  well-nigh  unbearable.  I  longed 
for  the  open,  for  the  roughness  of  the  horse  world, 
and  my  thoughts  were  never  with  my  work. 

It  was  about  at  this  stage  of  my  development 
that  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  certain  vet- 


TRAINING  VS.  INCLINATION 


11 


M\ 


erinary  surgeon,  and  he  so  imbued  me  with  the 
spirit  of  his  calling  that  I  then  and  there  decided 
that  I  had  found  my  vocation.  Prospectuses 
from  various  colleges,  were  applied  for  at  once, 
and  the  tobacco  business  lost  what  little  interest  it 
yet  held  for  me.  But,  now  to  break  the  news  to 
the  "governor." 

This  always  seemed  an  easy  matter  when  I  was 
in  one  end  of  the  town  and  he  in  another,  but  as 
soon  as  he  stood  before 
me  I  lost  all  courage  and 
several  months  passed 
before  I  could  even 
bring  myself  to  think  of 
the  matter  in  his  pres- 
ence. 

I  had  not  been  losing 
ground  during  this  time. 
My  mother  was  fully  in- 
formed of  my  intentions, 
and  with  her  help  I  final- 
ly faced  the  issue.  Never 
will  I  forget  my  father's 
anger  on  this  occasion. 
He  allowed  me  to  finish  my  plea  and  then  the 
storm  broke.  When  it  was  over  I  was  packing  a 
satchel  and  my  brain  was  having  a  storm  of  its 
own.  I  had  been  ordered  to  leave  the  house.  The 
"governor "  was  done  with  me. 

But  I  did  not  leave  the  house  that  day.  I  knew 
my  mother  full  well  and  I  took  a  long  time  pack- 
ing that  satchel,  and  just  as  I  was  putting  in  the 
last  pair  of  socks  my  mother  came  up  and  said 


"Cowboy  Charlie" 


12        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 


that  Dad  told  her  I  might  remain  if  I  wanted  to 
continue  at  my  job  in  the  leaf  tobacco  house. 
I  took  advantage  of  this  truce  and  went  back 


I  saved  up  some  money  and  bought  an  anatomy  and  began  to 

study  nights 

to  work.  I  saved  up  some  money  and  bought  an 
anatomy  and  began  to  study  nights,  then,  about 
three   months    after    my    first    break   with   the 


TRAINING  VS.  INCLINATION  13 

"governor,"  I  quit  my  job  and  went  home  and 
faced  him  again. 

The  storm  that  struck  me  the  first  time  was  as 
a  gentle  breeze  compared  to  the  one  that  I  had 
now  to  encounter,  but  I  weathered  through  it, 
backed  up  by  mother.  I  was  now  in  my 
eighteenth  year,  and  as  I  look  back  to  that  day, 
now  twelve  years  gone,  I  wonder  at  the  ways  of 
men,  and  at  the  ironies  of  fate.  I  have  faced 
many  storms  since  that  day,  brain  storms  and 
every  other  kind  of  storm,  against  which  that 
second  outburst  of  my  father's  was  but  a  gentle 
love  tap. 


CHAPTER  II 

A  PRACTICE  WON  AND  LOST  IN  MILWAUKEE 

After  my  resignation  from  the  tobacco  busi- 
ness, I  became  a  student  at  a  Milwaukee  vet- 
erinary hospital  and  remained  there  for  eight 
months  prior  to  my  entering  college.  At  the 
termination  of  my  apprenticeship  in  the  Mil- 
waukee institution,  I  matriculated  in  the  Chicago 
Veterinary  College  and  after  three  years  of  hard 
study  I  graduated  with  honors.  This  pleased  my 
father,  who  had  now  been  wholly  won  over  to  my 
view  and  who  paid  my  way  through  college. 

I  had  just  become  of  age  and  at  once  opened 
up  an  office  on  the  south  side  of  Milwaukee. 

Within  a  few  months,  I  was  doing  a  very  fair 
practice  and  would  probably  have  remained  there 
permanently  but  for  two  reasons. 

The  first  of  these  was  my  old  friend  Charlie. 
After  I  graduated  our  friendship  continued  and 
1  took  much  delight  in  patching  up  various  crip- 
pled and  unsound  steeds  which  came  into  his 
possession  by  various  means  and  which  he  later 
sold  again  at  good  profit.  This  was  all  right  and 
could  do  no  harm.  What  did  have  effect  on  me 
was  the  fact  that  old  Charlie  had  traveled  much 
in  his  younger  days.  His  stories  of  his  travels 
gave  me  the  wanderlust  and  old  Charlie  rather 
encouraged  it  in  me.  It  did  not  set  good  with 
him  to  see  me  come  out  of  school  with  colors  fly- 
ing and  then  squat  in  the  place  of  my  birth. 

15 


16        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

The  second  item  which  had  some  bearing  on 
my  future  life  was  in  the  form  of  one  of  those 
imported  German  counts. 

This  gentlemen  became  very  much  attached  to 
me  and  as  he  retained  quite  a  good  many  of  his 
foreign  ideas  about  life,  it  became  necessary  for 
me  to  join  in  his  numerous  sprees.  I  say  neces- 
sary; at  least  I  thought  so  at  that  time.  The 
Count  had  control  of  several  dollars'  worth  of 
practice  which  was  mine  only  so  only  as  I  was  his 
friend. 

I  tried  to  hold  up  my  end  of  the  performance 
as  well  as  he  did  his,  but  at  the  end  of  several 
months,  I  found  that  I  was  going  under. 

When  one  gets  so  that  he  can't  begin  the  day 
without  two  or  three  doses  of  corn  juice,  he  must 
be  going  under. 

On  top  of  this,  and,  of  course,  as  a  result 
thereof,  more  money  seemed  to  be  going  out  than 
was  coming  in.  When  my  clients  wanted  me  I 
could  not  be  found  and  so  my  practice  soon  went 
from  me. 

I  had  enough  good  sense  to  see  how  things 
were  turning  out  and  before  I  went  wholly  on  the 
rocks,  I  sold  my  horse  and  buggy,  promised  to 
pay  my  debts,  and  left  for  Texas. 

Before  I  left,  I  took  the  United  States  Civil 
Service  examination  for  Veterinary  Inspector, 
and  successfully  passed  it.  This  was  in  Septem- 
ber, 1904. 


CHAPTER  III 

A  NEW  START  IN  THE  GREAT  SOUTHWEST 

When  I  left  Milwaukee  for  Texas,  I  was  a 
young  fellow,  just  twenty-one,  and  had  never 
been  more  than  two  hundred  miles  from  home.  I 
was  a  typical  middle-westerner  and  my  ideas  of 
life  and  the  world  were  pretty  simple  ones. 

I  had  no  more  conception  of  what  I  would  find 
in  Texas  than  I  now  have  of  the  next  world.  I 
selected  Texas  as  a  place  to  go  to  merely  because 
the  name  had  charms  for  me  and  because  it  was 
far  away. 

I  had  in  my  possession  a  letter  from  one  of  my 
instructors  to  the  State  Veterinarian  of  Texas 
and  on  this  letter  I  banked  for  a  start.  The  State 
Veterinarian  at  that  time  resided  in  Houston  and 
to  that  point  I  purchased  my  ticket,  taking 
advantage  of  the  colonist  rates  then  in  force 
which  gave  me  a  ticket  to  Houston  and  return  for 
twenty-two  dollars  and  fifty  cents.  The  return 
portion  of  this  ticket  I  have  still  in  my  keeping 
and  it  is  a  highly  treasured  souvenir. 

My  route  lay  over  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  and 
St.  Paul  road  to  Kansas  City  and  from  Kansas 
City  over  the  "Katy"  (Missouri,  Kansas  & 
Texas),  through  the  old  Indian  Territory.  I 
remember,  better  than  all  else  on  this  trip,  the 
booming  towns  in  the  territory  where  oil  had 
recently  been  struck.  Never  before,  nor  since, 
have  I  seen  such  an  example  of  hustle  and  bustle. 

17 


18        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

I  arrived  in  Houston  on  the  sixth  of  October; 
and  it  was  hot.  I  left  the  north  with  my  winter 
clothes,  as  it  was  getting  quite  chilly  there  when 
I  left.  There,  in  Houston,  for  the  first  weeks  I 
thought  I  would  die  from  heat  and  I  spent  a 
great  part  of  the  time  riding  on  the  front  end  of 
street  cars,  where  the  breeze  was  strong,  trying  to 
keep  cool. 

When  I  arrived  and  got  out  of  the  Grand 
Central  Station,  I  got  into  one  of  the  hotel  buses 
standing  at  the  curb  and  was  taken  to  the  Hotel 
Rice.  I  registered,  and  then  went  into  the  cafe ; 
then  I  went  back  into  the  lobby  and  got  my  grip 
back  and  told  the  clerk  to  check  me  off  the  reg- 
ister again.  I  had  found  out  that  it  would  cost 
me  about  four  dollars  a  day  to  stay  there  and  in 
view  of  my  cramped  financial  position,  I  had  to 
change  hotels. 

I  went  from  the  Hotel  Rice  to.  the  Bristol 
Hotel,  where  I  could  stay  for  two  dollars  a  day. 
I  remained  a  guest  there  for  half  a  day. 

After  depositing  my  satchel  at  the  Bristol 
Hotel,  I  began  a  search  for  the  State  Veterina- 
rian, to  whom  I  had  a  letter  of  introduction,  and 
found  him  in  a  small  wooden  building  very  much 
like  a  small  real  estate  office  on  a  new  town  addi- 
tion, on  the  corner  of  Famine  and  Prairie 
Avenues. 

He  was  a  fine,  gentlemanly  man  and,  as  he 
was  a  native  of  the  north,  I  soon  came  to  feel  at 
home.  He  was  in  need  of  an  assistant  but  could 
not  quite  afford  to  pay  me  what  I  thought  I  was 
worth. 


A  NEW  START  19 

After  haggling  over  my  salary  for  several 
days,  we  agreed  on  a  kind  of  partnership.  All 
business  done  up  to  two  hundred  dollars  each 
month  was  to  be  divided  between  us  equally.  All 
over  that  sum  went  to  him  in  a  lump.  This 
arrangement  made  it  possible  for  me  to  make  a 
hundred  dollars  a  month  and  I  did  so  as  long  as 
I  worked  on  this  basis. 

I  found  many  things  here  during  my  first  few 
months'  stay  which  took  a  good  bit  of  the  middle- 
westerner  out  of  me  and  which  broadened  mv 
mind  considerably.  Also,  I  found  that  I  would 
have  to  brush  up  on  several  points  in  my  pro- 
fession. I  encountered  many  conditions  and  dis- 
eases here  which  were  rare  or  unknown  in  the 
north. 

When  I  had  entered  into  the  partnership  above 
referred  to  I  took  a  room  with  an  elderly  couple 
in  the  residence  section  and  soon  I  was  very  much 
at  home  in  my  new  surroundings.  Only  at  cer- 
tain times  did  I  have  a  longing  for  my  northern 
home  and  I  will  never  forget  how  I  was  affected 
by  the  advertising  signs  of  a  certain  brand  of 
tobacco  which  was  on  the  market  at  the  time.  It 
was  called  "Old  North  State";  everywhere  on 
telephone  poles,  on  fences  and  barns  these  signs 
were  tacked  up.  "Use  Good  Old  North  State"; 
many  weeks  passed  before  I  could  read  one  of 
the  signs  without  flinching. 

Another  difficulty  I  experienced  in  Houston 
during  the  early  part  of  my  stay  there  was  in  con- 
nection with  the  attitude  of  the  whites  towards 
the  negroes.     It  was  quite  a  long  time  before  I 


20        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

could  refrain  from  showing  them  courtesies  which 
were  considered  out  of  place  there.  I  had  the 
middle-westener  firm  grounding  on  the  equality 
of  peoples  and  it  hurt  when  I  had  to  extract  it. 

But  this  was  overcome  in  time  and  gave  me  no 
trouble  later. 

I  had  not  been  in  Houston  many  weeks  before 
I  got  the  "happy-go-lucky  spirit"  of  the  south 
and  west.  I  began  to  have  visions  of  big  deals  in 
lands,  in  cattle  and  other  big  enterprises  and  I 
wanted  to  expand.  Everybody  who  amounted  to 
anything  talked  of  big  things;  big  oil  strikes  or 
cattle  deals ;  or  a  land  sale  of  thousands  of  acres. 
My  middle-west  sense  of  proportion  was  torn  into 
shreds  and  I  began  to  get  the  wanderlust  again ; 
wanted  to  see  some  of  this  big  action. 

To  this  day  I  have  not  entirely  overcome  that 
desire  to  move;  it  comes  to  the  fore  every  now 
and  then  and  it  has  cost  me  dearly  more  than 
once. 

At  just  about  the  time  when  that  hundred  dol- 
lars per  month  was  getting  on  my  nerves,  I 
received  a  commission  from  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture  as  a  veterinary 
inspector  in  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry,  with 
orders  to  report  for  duty  at  Fort  Worth,  Texas. 
I  have  mentioned  before  that  I  took  the  civil 
service  examination  before  leaving  Milwaukee; 
this  appointment  followed  it. 

I  had  not  notified  the  civil  service  commission 
of  my  change  of  address  and  the  appointment 
letter  had  been  sent  to  my  home  address  in  Mil- 
waukee and  forwarded  to  me  by  my  father,  reach- 


A  NEW  START  21 

ing  me  in  Houston  on  the  day  on  which  I  was  to 
go  on  duty  in  Fort  Worth. 

The  position  paid  only  a  hundred  dollars  a 
month  also,  but  I  thought  it  would  give  me  an 
opportunity  to  satisfy  my  craving  for  a  change  of 
environment  and  so  I  wired  my  acceptance  and 
left  for  my  station  that  night. 

Before  leaving  the  State  Veterinarian  assured 
me  that  he  would  be  pleased  to  have  me  return 
and  continue  in  his  employ  if  the  government 
position  should  be  unsuitable.  I  am  not  sure 
whether  he  made  the  assertion  in  good  faith. 
Nevertheless,  I  was  back  in  Houston  inside  of 
two  weeks  and  he  kept  his  word. 

Arriving  at  Fort  Worth,  I  was  put  on  hog 
inspection  in  Armour's  Packing  House.  Meat 
inspection  at  that  time,  as  governed  by  govern- 
ment regulations,  was  a  farce  and  in  the  light  of 
my  opportunities  in  other  fields,  I  did  not  care 
to  be  a  party  to  what  I  considered  hoodwinking 
the  public.  The  reader  must  remember  that  this 
was  twelve  years  ago  before  the  meat  inspection 
law  of  1906,  before  the  publication  of  "The 
Jungle"  and  when  congress  was  niggardly  with 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  looked  upon 
meat  inspection  chiefly  as  a  means  of  procuring 
export  trade. 

The  climax  of  this  part  of  my  career  was  pre- 
cipitated by  a  quarrel  with  the  chief  inspector 
who  persisted  in  releasing  animals  which  I  con- 
demned, and  I  resigned.  He  had  been  in  the 
service  so  long  that  he  had  become  calloused  to 
conditions  which  were  repugnant  to  me.     As 


22        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

evidence  that  I  was  not  entirely  wrong  about  this 
I  had  the  satisfaction  to  see  him  reduced  to  the 
rank  of  ordinary  inspector  soon  thereafter. 

As  I  said,  I  resigned  and  went  back  to  Hous- 
ton and  took  up  my  work  where  I  had  left  off. 
I  was  in  a  restful  frame  of  mind  again  and  for 
about  two  months  I  was  satisfied  that  Houston 
just  suited  me. 

The  hot  weather  kept  right  up  and  on  Christ- 
mas day  there  came  a  nice  warm  rain.  This  rain 
interfered  with  the  proper  Christmas  festivities  as 
they  are  conducted  there,  which  is  on  the  order  of 
our  Fourth  of  July  celebration  in  the  north — 
fireworks  and  all  that  goes  with  it. 

Speaking  of  Fourth  of  July  celebrations 
brings  to  my  mind  a  type  of  native  which  I  fre- 
quently encountered  in  east  Texas  and  who  gave 
me  much  concern  at  first.  They  are  "old  timers" 
who  do  not  seem  to  know  that  the  Civil  War  is 
over  and  forgotten.  To  them  every  man  from 
the  north  is  a  hated  "Yank"  and  in  some  of  the 
"back-in-the-sticks"  places  in  east  Texas  it  is  best 
not  to  speak  too  plainly  about  your  place  of  birth 
if  you  happen  to  be  from  the  north  side  of  the 
Mason-Dixon  line. 

The  month  of  February  came  and  I  began  to 
get  the  spring  fever.  I  had  now  been  in  Texas 
four  months  and  I  wanted  to  see  more  of  it.  I 
began  to  look  around  for  a  location  with  a  view  of 
going  into  practice  on  my  own  hook  again,  and 
after  some  casting  about,  I  decided  to  go  to 
Temple,  in  Bell  County,  one  of  the  best  farming 
counties  in  Texas. 


A  NEW  START  23 

I  had  not  saved  a  dollar  in  Houston  during  the 
four  months  and  had  to  borrow  some  money  to 
get  started  in  Temple.  I  thought  I  could  well 
afford  to  do  so  considering  what  bonanza  location 
Temple  seemed  to  be.  It  was  then  a  town  of 
about  ten  thousand  people  and  a  few  miles  away 
is  Belton,  the  county  seat,  also  a  good  town.  An 
electric  railway  connects  them.  In  neither  of 
these  towns  nor  in  any  town  within  a  radius  of 
fifty  miles  was  there  a  graduate  veterinarian. 

The  surrounding  country  was  thickly  settled 
with  good  farmers  and  it  looked  like  a  fine 
opening. 

I  stayed  there  about  six  weeks.  During  those 
six  weeks,  I  earned  about  six  dollars. 

After  I  had  been  there  a  few  weeks  and  saw 
how  things  were  going,  I  made  application  for 
reinstatement  in  the  government  service  and 
through  the  good  offices  of  my  friend,  the  State 
Veterinarian  in  Houston,  I  was  given  an  assign- 
ment on  Colonel  Dean's  force  in  the  quarantine 
division.  This  meant  field  work,  in  the  open,  and 
suited  me  exactly. 

I  had  been  corresponding  with  a  classmate  of 
mine  who  had  located  in  Massachusetts.  He 
wanted  to  come  west.  Although  I  had  done  little 
or  no  business  in  Temple,  I  could  see  no  reason 
for  it,  I  can't  see  any  reason  to  this  day,  why 
there  was  no  business  there.  I  sincerely  believed 
that  the  business  was  there  and  would  come  in 
time.  I  wrote  my  former  classmate  about  the 
situation  and  he  came  and  took  my  office  a  few 
days  before  my  government  job  went  into  effect. 


24        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

He  remained  there  three  months  and  had  to 
borrow  money  to  get  out  of  town,  as  I  had  to  do 
also  when  I  left  there. 

I  borrowed  money  to  get  in  and  start  and  then 
borrowed  more  to  get  out  and  quit. 


CHAPTER  IV 

PRACTICE  IN  TEXAS 

When  I  first  began  to  practice  my  profession 
in  Texas  I  made  the  discovery  that  there  were  a 
number  of  diseases  among  animals  which  I  had 
never  seen  in  the  northern  animals. 

The  first  one  of  these  was  anthrax,  and,  by  the 
way,  one  of  the  first  cases  that  came  into  my 
hands  after  my  arrival  in  Texas  was  a  case  of 
anthrax  in  a  horse.  I  remember  the  case  very 
well.  It  was  on  a  hot  Sunday  afternoon,  and  the 
horse  in  question  was  a  driver  stabled  in  a  private 
stable  in  the  residence  section  in  Houston.  The 
animal  was  taken  sick  about  noon  and  the  owner 
called  me  at  about  two  in  the  afternoon.  When 
1  arrived,  the  owner  stated  that  the  sickness  came 
on  suddenly ;  the  horse  had  been  standing,  quietly 
eating,  when  suddenly  he  stopped  eating  and 
seemed  somewhat  delirious.  Very  soon  there- 
after he  went  down.  I  found  him  down,  showing 
some  delirium.  On  various  parts  of  his  body,  but 
mostly  in  front  of  the  trachea  and  under  the 
belly,  he  had  an  edematous  swelling.  The  owner 
stated  these  came  on  since  he  was  taken  sick. 

The  visible  membranes  showed  echymoses ;  the 
temperature  was  quite  high. 

The  owner  was  a  pleasant  chap  and  did  not  try 
to  "think  what  is  the  matter  with  him,"  but  when 
I  told  him  I  thought  his  horse  had  anthrax,  he 
disagreed  with  me;  he  said  he  thought  it  was 

25 


26        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

charbon.  I  explained  that  charbon  and  anthrax 
were  the  same  and  complimented  him  on  his 
ability  to  diagnose  the  case.  He  stated  that  he 
was  quite  familiar  with  this  disease,  having  been 
raised  in  the  low-lands  of  east  Texas.  "But,"  he 
said,  "folks  hereabouts  always  call  in  charbon." 

Of  course  I  remembered  the  synonyms  of  anth- 
rax. 

The  horse  died  in  about  three  hours,  having 
had,  no  doubt,  the  apoplectic  form. 

Anthrax,  or  charbon,  was  very  common  in  that 
country  in  those  days.  Even  within  the  city  it 
was  not  rare.  I  clearly  remember  an  instance  in 
my  experience  occurring  in  a  small  dairy  which 
was  conducted  in  the  residence  portion  of  Hous- 
ton.    Three  or  four  cows  died  in  two  davs  with 

ml 

anthrax. 

So  common  was  the  disease  that  many  people 
would  not  call  in  the  veterinarian  at  all,  recogniz- 
ing the  disease  themselves  and  "just  letting  them 
die." 

This  was  no  doubt  one  of  the  reasons  why  the 
disease  was  so  common;  almost  no  preventive 
measures  were  taken  and  carcasses  were  not 
properly  destroyed. 

Another  disease  which  was  very  common  there 
was  tetanus.  Very  few  horses  died  from  it,  how- 
ever; it  seemed  to  run  a  very  mild  course.  The 
latter  point  made  it  necessary  for  me  to  change 
my  prognosis  in  tetanus  cases;  in  Wisconsin  we 
usually  gave  a  very  unfavorable  prognosis 
because  the  mortality  there  from  tetanus  was 
very  high.    Here,  in  Texas,  I  discovered  that  I 


PRACTICE  IN  TEXAS  27 

could  usually  give  a  very  favorable  prognosis  for 
eases  of  tetanus. 

The  disease  which  gave  me  the  most  trouble 
when  I  first  began  to  practice  in  east  Texas  was 
the  botryomycotic  infection  commonly  known  as 
''summer  sores." 

Some  of  my  experiences  with  this  condition 
were  most  discouraging  and  I  did  not  make  much 
progress  with  my  handling  of  these  cases  until  an 
old  practitioner  "put  me  next"  to  a  few  things. 
Most  of  the  practitioners  with  whom  I  discussed 
this  disease  had  only  a  very  poor  understanding 
of  the  pathology  of  it;  most  of  them  had  never 
heard  of  botryomyces.  Some  of  them  attributed 
the  condition  to  the  filaria  irritans.  A  few  of  them 
ascribed  the  condition  to  cancerous  processes, 
calling  it  cancer.  Nearly  every  one  had  a  differ- 
ent form  of  treatment  for  this  disease ;  and  most 
of  the  treatments  did  not  accomplish  very  much. 

I  remember  one  instance  which  occurred  while 
I  was  in  Texas  in  which  a  very  competent  veter- 
inarian diagnosed  a  botryomycotic  infection  of 
the  genitals  in  a  stallion  as  dourine.  I  mention 
this  merely  to  illustrate  how  little  even  the  local 
practitioners  knew  about  botryomycosis  at  the 
time  of  which  I  write. 

One  condition  which  I  expected  to  find  in  the 
south  was  insolation,  or  heat  stroke.  Great  was 
my  surprise  when  an  old  practitioner  in  Houston 
told  me  that  this  condition  was  practically  never 
seen  there.  Later  I  found  this  to  be  true.  I  had 
one  or  two  cases  of  "over-heating"  in  a  mild  form, 


28        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

but  regular  sun-stroke  such  as  we  get  in  the 
north,  I  never  encountered  in  the  south. 

An  interesting  point  along  therapeutic  lines  I 
learned  in  the  extreme  western  part  of  Texas, 
where  the  altitude  is  very  high,  being  sometimes 
5,000  feet  above  sea  level.  This  point  was  in 
regard  to  the  treatment  of  pneumonia,  and  other 
febrile  conditions,  but  pneumonia  most  especially, 
and  consists  in  the  fact  that  one  must  be  very 
careful  in  the  use  of  heart  depressants  such  as 
acetanilid,  phenacetin,  all  coal-tar  products,  and 
even  quinin. 

The  doctor  who  treats  his  pneumonia  cases 
there  as  most  of  us  do  in  the  lower  altitudes  will 
have  many  deaths,  usually  in  the  first  day  or  two 
of  the  attack.  Pneumonia  patients  in  those  alti- 
tudes truly  die  of  heart  exhaustion,  and  few  fatal 
cases  live  over  a  few  days.  It  is  a  good  place  in 
which  to  take  lessons  in  the  treatment  of  this  dis- 
ease— lessons  that  are  valuable  in  any  altitude. 


CHAPTER  V 

WITH  UNCLE  SAM 

A  whole  year  had  gone  by  now  since  my  grad- 
uation and  I  had  nothing  except  a  little  expe- 
rience to  show  for  it.  Money  I  had  none,  and 
what  was  worse,  I  was  in  debt. 

I  owed  several  friends  money  in  Milwaukee 
and  also  in  Houston.  Likewise  in  Temple  where 
I  had  had  to  borrow  money  to  get  out  of  town. 

I  was  now  twenty-two  years  old  and  in  good 
health.  I  was  full  of  life  and  the  world  looked 
bright  to  me  in  spite  of  my  misfortune. 

So  far  only  one  occurrence  had  the  effect  of 
sadness  on  me  and  that  was  a  notice  which  I 
received,  while  in  Temple,  of  the  death — self- 
inflicted — of  my  old  friend  Charlie.  Aside  from 
this,  I  could  see  nothing  but  cheerful  success 
ahead  of  me,  as  I  began  my  duties  for  the  second 
time  in  the  government  service.  As  my  work 
this  time  would  be  inspecting  animals  on  the  hoof 
at  various  ranches  and  stock  yards,  I  looked  for- 
ward to  my  new  appointment  with  much  interest. 

My  first  appointment  as  veterinary  official  in 
the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry  was  in  the  fall 
of  1904,  shortly  after  my  arrival  in  Texas.  By  a 
strange  coincidence  I  was  to  go  on  duty  at  Fort 
Worth,  Texas. 

The  position  at  that  time  paid  only  $1,200.00 
a  year,  and  the  veterinarian  went  by  the  title  of 
"Meat  Inspector." 

29 


30 


THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 


The  inspection,  as  it  was  carried  out  then,  was 
very  slipshod  and  unscientific.  Under  instruc- 
tions, I  -sat  for  nine  hours,  with  a  short  lunch 
period,  in  a  chair  inspecting  hog  viscera.  I  was 
supplied  with  a  pronged  stick  for  poking  any 
particular  set  into  position  for  a  better  view. 
Unless  a  gross  pathological  process  was  present, 
it  was  impossible  to  detect  abnormalities. 

This  system  of  inspection  did  not  agree  with 


I  was  sent  to  Colorado  City,  Texas,  to  inspect  cattle  for  interstate 

shipment 

my  ideas  of  "value  received,"  and  when  my 
superior  persisted  in  releasing  the  few  carcasses 
which  I  did  hold  up  in  spite  of  this  poor  method 
of  inspection,  I  resigned.  I  had  been  on  the  job 
only  two  weeks. 

When  I  was  reinstated  in  the  service,  in  the 
spring  of  1905,  I  went  into  the  quarantine  divi- 
sion. 

In  this  division  I  found  an  entirely  different 
state  of  affairs.  The  inspectors  were  capable 
and  efficient  fellows,  and  did  their  work  well. 


WITH  UNCLE  SAM  31 

My  orders  were  to  report  for  duty  at  Fort 
Worth  to  Dr.  Wallace  (who  has  since  died), 
there  to  get  my  instructions  and  to  he  "broken 
in."  After  ten  days,  I  was  supposed  to  be  "broke 
in"  sufficiently  and  was  sent  to  Colorado  City, 
Texas,  to  inspect  cattle,  out  of  the  modified  quar- 
antine area,  for  inter-state  shipment.  My  instruc- 
tions were  to  report  to  Dan  McCunningham, 
inspector  in  charge  at  Colorado  City,  and  work 
under  his  orders;  but  when  I  arrived  McCun- 
ningham was  away  making  an  inspection. 

Somehow  word  had  reached  Colorado  City  that 
an  assistant  inspector  would  make  his  appearance 
on  that  day  and  my  services  were  in  demand  at 
once.  A  certain  cattle  man  had  fourteen  hundred 
head  of  steers  he  wanted  to  ship.  The  cattle  were 
gathered,  cars  ordered  and  they  must  be 
inspected  at  once.  My  chief  was  away,  and  I,  as 
assistant,  must  make  the  inspection  which,  in  that 
locality,  was  for  Texas  fever  ticks. 

These  "ticks,"  when  full  grown,  are  about  the 
size  of  a  grain  of  corn  and  my  inspection  papers, 
when  signed  by  me,  would  certify  that  every  one 
of  those  fourteen  hundred  steers  was  free  from 
ticks ;  if  I  could  have  found  one  tick  on  one  steer, 
I  should  have  had  to  refuse  to  issue  them  clear- 
ance papers. 

From  this  you  can  imagine  that  I  was  not  very 
much  at  ease  on  this  job.  Here  I  was,  new  at  the 
work,  and  new  to  this  life,  with  fourteen  hundred 
wild  Texas  steers  staring  me  in  the  face,  demand- 
ing inspection.    But  "I  slipped  one  over"  on  this 


32        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

first  job  in  my  new  official  capacity  in  the  follow- 
ing manner: 

It  was  the  custom  at  that  time  for  the  state  of 
Texas  to  appoint  local  inspectors  in  each  county 
to  assist  in  maintaining  the  federal  quarantine 
lines  and  to  make  inspections  of  cattle  for  move- 
ment within  the  state  of  Texas.  In  addition  to 
this  they  also  made  an  inspection  ( for  the  state  of 
Texas)  of  all  cattle  moving  out  of  the  quar- 
antined area  for  any  purpose  whatever. 

These  state  inspectors  were  laymen,  but  usually 
expert  "cow-men"  and  very  dependable  inspec- 
tors. In  the  instance  of  my  first  inspection  two 
of  these  state  inspectors,  Tom  Benson  and  Joe 
Merritt,  were  present.  I  allowed  them  to  make 
their  inspection  first  and  when  they  gave  me  their 
opinion  that  the  herd  was  free  from  ticks,  I  felt 
that  I  need  have  no  scruples  about  issing  my  cer- 
tificate. I  made  only  a  casual  examination  and 
frankly  told  the  state  inspectors  that  I  had  con- 
fidence in  their  inspection.  In  this  manner  I  not 
only  slipped  through  an  embarrassing  position, 
for  I  knew  absolutely  nothing  about  inspecting 
cattle  in  herds  on  the  plains,  but  I  also  gained  the 
friendship  and  good-will  of  the  two  state  men. 
They  did  many  good  turns  for  me  as  long  as  I 
was  stationed  at  Colorado  City  and  are  num- 
bered among  my  staunch  friends  to  this  day. 

On  the  following  day  McCunningham  made 
his  appearance  and  I  worked  under  his  super- 
vision for  a  time,  until  I  was  capable  of  making 
a  thorough  inspection. 

This  McCunningham  was  one  of  the  old  live- 


WITH  UNCLE  SAM  33 

stock  agents  of  which  not  many  are  left  in  the 
Bureau  of  Animal  Industry.  They  were  not 
veterinarians,  but  most  of  those  with  whom  I 
became  acquainted  were  good  "cow-men"  and 
had  a  very  good  knowledge  of  the  quarantine  reg- 
ulations and  of  the  diseases  for  which  they  were 
on  the  lookout: 

One  of  these  government  agents,  the  late  Col. 
Albert  Dean,  will  bear  mention  especially.  He 
was  a  fine  man  in  every  respect  and  for  many 
years  was  in  charge  of  the  quarantine  division 
covering  Texas,  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  and 
portions  of  other  states.  Veterinarians  as  well  as 
others  were  under  his  supervision  and  all  held 
him  in  high  esteem.  Officially  he  ranked  even 
above  the  inspector  in  charge  at  Kansas  City  and 
was  for  many  years  and  until  his  death,  about 
three  years  ago,  an  instructor  in  a  veterinary  col- 
lege there. 

I  remained  at  Colorado  City  about  two 
months  and  was  then  transferred  to  El  Paso,  to 
inspect  animals  of  all  kinds  for  importation  into 
the  United  States  from  Mexico. 

In  this  position,  I  traveled  along  the  Mexican 
border  from  Sanderson,  Texas,  to  Nogales, 
Arizona.  It  was  interesting  work,  although  at 
times  hazardous  and  connected  with  much  hard- 
ship. In  a  short  time  I  could  speak  Spanish 
enough  to  make  my  dealings  with  the  Mexican 
cattle-men  more  agreeable  and  this  knowledge  of 
Spanish  came  to  be  quite  useful  in  other  lines. 

After  I  became  proficient  in  the  art  of  inspect- 
ing stock  on  the  hoof,  I  found  the  work  very 


34        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

interesting.  The  constant  traveling  about,  from 
one  town  to  another  and  from  the  towns  to  the 
various  ranches  and  ranges,  was  exactly  to  my 
liking.  Besides,  there  was  plenty  of  chance  for 
excitement;  in  some  spots  the  territory  which  I 
had  in  charge  was  quite  "wild  and  woolly." 
Almost  every  day  there  was  need  for  consider- 
able "backbone,"  and  now  and  then  for  more 
than  considerable.  A  few  of  my  experiences  will 
suffice  to  give  the  reader  an  idea  of  what  the  vet- 
erinary inspector  does  in  the  quarantine  division 
for  a  hundred  dollars  per  month.  (Today  he 
gets  $116.67  per  month.) 

A  request  came  to  the  office  one  day  for 
inspection  of  some  two  thousand  head  of  steers 
out  of  the  modified  quarantine  area.  I  was 
detailed  to  proceed  to  the  point  given  and  make 
the  inspection  without  delay.  I  left  my  station 
in  the  evening,  rode  on  the  train  all  night  and 
arrived  at  the  place,  Marathon,  early  the  next 
morning. 

The  regulations  affecting  the  modified  quaran- 
tine area  stipulated  that  the  cattle  must  be 
inspected  on  the  ranch  or  range;  they  must  not 
be  trailed  until  the  government  inspector  had 
certified  them.  The  inspection  was  chiefly  for 
Texas  fever  ticks,  but  other  infectious  diseases, 
like  scab  for  example,  must  not  be  ignored. 

When  I  arrived  at  Marathon  the  owner  of  the 
cattle  met  me  at  the  depot.  He  stated  that  the 
cattle  were  within  a  few  miles  of  the  town,  hav- 
ing been  driven  from  the  ranch  in  Pecos  County. 
Here  was  a  calamity.  Pecos  County,  where  the 
ranch  was  located,  was  in  quarantine.     Mara- 


WITH  UNCLE  SAM  35 

thon,  where  the  cattle  now  were,  was  in  Brew- 
ster County,  in  the  free  area.  My  duty,  accord- 
ing to  the  government  regulations  bearing  upon 
a  case  of  this  kind,  would  be  to  declare  the 
cattle  in  quarantine  at  once  wherever  I  found 
them.  I  had  no  right,  even  to  look  at  them  in 
an  official  capacity.  The  cattle  were  from  an 
infected  area  and  must  be  looked  upon  as 
infected.  The  fact  that  they  had  been  trailed 
out  of  the  quarantined  area  in  violation  of  the 
regulations  placed  them  beyond  the  pale  of  eligi- 
bility for  inspection  for  the  time  being.  I  must 
place  them  under  quarantine  for  thirty  days,  at 
the  expiration  of  which  the  owner  might  apply 
for  inspection  to  obtain  their  release. 

You  can  imagine  that  a  cow-man  would  not 
take  this  matter  very  lightly.  Here  were  around 
two  thousand  steers,  valued  easily  at  $50,000.00, 
in  prime  shape  for  market.  Along  comes  "a 
young  kid  of  a  government  inspector,"  working 
for  a  hundred  dollars  a  month,  who  says  the 
cattle  cannot  be  shipped.  But  this  was  not  the 
biggest  trouble.  When  word  was  passed  around 
that  the  government  inspector  had  said  the  cattle 
were  to  be  considered  under  quarantine,  the 
ranchmen  on  whose  property  the  cattle  hap- 
pened to  be  at  the  time  wanted  to  drive  them  off ; 
their  district  was  in  the  free  area,  open  to  all 
markets,  and  they  did  not  want  the  herd  on  their 
places. 

My  first  act  was  to  wire  my  chief,  old  Col. 
Dean,  at  Kansas  City,  what  I  was  up  against. 
I  received  a  reply  which  upheld  my  action  and 
ordered  me  to  properly  institute  a  quarantine 


36        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

over  the  herd  and  then  return  to  my  station. 
This  made  me  feel  good,  I  assure  you. 

When,  four  weeks  after,  I  was  again  detailed 
to  inspect  the  herd  I  found  them  absolutely  free 
from  infection.  As  far  as  I  know  the  owner  of 
that  herd  has  not  forgiven  me  to  this  day ;  I  lost 
his  goodwill.  But, — I  had  to  enforce  the  regula- 
tions. 

On  another  occasion  I  was  detailed  to  inspect 
a  small  herd  of  cattle,  numbering  about  three 
hundred  head,  for  shipment  out  of  the  modified 
quarantine  area  near  the  town  of  Colorado, 
Texas. 

The  ranch  on  which  the  cattle  were  at  the  time 
was  known  to  be  infected  with  ticks,  and  no  cat- 
tle had  passed  inspection  there  for  several 
seasons.  My  superior  officer  gave  me  warning 
to  "look  sharp"  and  be  on  my  mettle,  for  not 
only  was  the  ranch  known  to  be  infected,  but  the 
owner  was  also  known  for  his  trickery  in  "trying 
to  get  by." 

Two  inspectors  acting  for  the  State  of  Texas 
accompanied  me  to  the  ranch.  We  found  the 
herd  gathered  in  a  small  corral,  barely  large 
enough  to  hold  them.  This  was  the  first  evidence 
to  me  that  the  owner  of  the  herd  was  on  to  his 
job;  it  is  a  most  difficult  matter  to  make  a 
thorough  inspection  for  ticks  under  such  condi- 
tions. The  cattle  crowd  and  join  together,  giv- 
ing the  inspector  no  chance  to  view  the  parts 
where  ticks  are  most  commonly  seen,  such  as  the 
dewlap,  escutcheon,  udder,  lower  flank,  and  so  on. 

When  the  inspector  pushes  his  horse  into  the 
bunch,   he  is   immediately  surrounded   by   the 


WITH  UNCLE  SAM  37 

herd;  the  cattle  find  it  impossible  to  spread  out, 
and  handle  his  mount  as  he  may,  the  inspector 
remains  constantly  in  the  jam.  Besides,  it  is  a 
very  difficult  matter  to  "cut  out"  a  cow  or  a  steer 
for  individual  examination  under  such  condi- 
tions. I  had  been  "up  against"  just  such  propo- 
sitions before  this,  however,  and  I  made  that 
owner  and  his  little  bunch  of  cow-punchers  earn 
their  bread  that  day. 

For  nearly  two  hours  I  had  them  jumping 
cows  into  a  chute,  where  I  made  a  thorough 
inspection  at  my  ease.  I  had  examined  probably 
a  couple  of  hundred  head  of  the  herd  in  this 
manner  without  finding  a  sign  of  a  tick.  The 
owner  and  the  punchers  were  getting  balky ;  they 
began  to  make  remarks  about  the  government's 
ideas  of  the  cattle  industry  and  about  some  of 
the  "damphool"  inspectors  working  for  the  gov- 
ernment. This  "got  my  goat."  I  told  them  that 
I  was  there  to  find  ticks  on  their  cows;  that  I 
knew  there  were  ticks  on  them,  and  that  I  would 
have  every  cow  go  through  the  chute.  "And 
then,"  I  said,  "if  I  haven't  found  any  ticks,  we 
will  run  them  all  through  the  chute  once  more. 
You  guys  are  nothing  but  a  bunch  of  bluffers 
and  I  know  that  too.  Now  get  busy,  or  I  go 
back  to  town." 

Well,  I  had  them  sized  up  right;  not  a  man 
peeped,  and  they  rushed  the  cattle  through  the 
chute  plenty  fast. 

When  I  had  examined  all  but  about  twenty  or 
thirty  head,  they  chased  in  a  big  red  cow;  and 
there  the  performance  stopped.  I  found  a 
couple  of  nice,  big,  fat  ticks  on  the  inside  of  one 


38        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 


thigh.    Under  the  magnifying  glass  they  proved 
to  be  the  Margaropus  annulatus. 

The  owner  of  the  herd  stood  by  my  side  when 


CAUGHT  HIM  WITH  A  FULL  ARM  SWING  ON  THE  51DE  OF"  THE  NECK 


I  pulled  the  ticks  off  the  cow,  and  he  wanted  me 
to  hand  him  the  ticks.  This  I  would  not  do 
until  both  the  state  inspectors  had  seen  them 


WITH  UNCLE  SAM  39 

and  confirmed  my  findings ;  then  I  let  him  exam- 
ine them.  When  he  had  done  looking  them  over, 
he  claimed  they  were  not  Texas  fever  ticks.  I 
did  not  argue  with  him,  but  simply  told  him  he 
could  not  ship  the  cattle.  Thereupon  he  rushed 
at  me,  fumbling  with  his  right  hand  in  his  shirt 
front.  I  stepped  to  one  side  and,  whirling  partly 
round  on  one  foot,  I  caught  him  with  a  full  arm 
swing  on  the  side  of  the  neck.  He  seemed  to 
become  suddenly  rigid  and  toppled  over  like  a 
post. 

I  expected  the  gang  of  punchers  to  jump  me, 
but  no  one  interfered.  The  two  state  inspectors 
accompanied  me  back  to  town,  and  on  the  way 
they  advised  me  to  be  on  my  guard  for  the  fellow 
from  now  on;  they  said  he  was  a  "bad  actor"  and 
would  "get"  me.  Imagine  my  surprise  when  the 
next  day  he  appeared  at  the  office  and  begged 
my  pardon  for  having  lost  his  temper.  When  I 
saw  him  coming,  I  thought  he  was  coming  to 
shoot  it  out  with  me,  and  I  "fixed"  myself;  that 
is,  I  met  him  at  the  door  with  a  heavy  "44  Colts'  " 
in  one  hand. 

Later  I  was  told  that  his  pardon  begging  stunt 
was  the  result  of  certain  information  imparted  to 
him  by  one  of  the  state  inspectors.  This  partic- 
ular bit  of  information  related  to  the  Act  of 
Congress  which  provides  for  the  severe  punish- 
ment of  parties  guilty  of  threatening  or  attack- 
ing an  inspector  performing  his  duty. 

While  such  episodes  as  I  have  just  related 
were  common  occurrences  in  the  routine  of  quar- 
antine work  in  those  days,  I  remember  only  one 
or    two    instances    where    the    inspectors    took 


40        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

advantage  of  their  official  capacity  in  thus  prose- 
cuting an  individual.  As  a  rule  the  occurrence 
was  not  reported  by  the  inspector.  Usually  we 
came  out  on  top  anyhow,  and  we  merely  counted 
it  as  a  little  spice  to  our  sauce.  Nearly  every 
inspector  in  the  quarantine  division  in  those  days 
could  tell  you  a  number  of  similar  experiences. 

The  fault  in  every  case  lay  with  the  cattle  men, 
who  looked  upon  the  matter  as  personal  between 
them  and  the  inspectors.  They  did  not  stop  to 
consider  that  everything  the  veterinary  inspector 
did  was  under  rigid  rules  and  regulations.  A 
government  veterinarian  in  that  branch  of  the 
service  really  had  no  personality  while  on  duty. 
He  was  bound  to  enforce  the  government  regu- 
lations regardless  of  sentiment  or  personal  bias, 
and  it  could  make  no  difference  to  him  what  the 
circumstances,  or  who  the  sufferer.  For  the 
inspector  it  is  always  an  "open  and  shut"  propo- 
sition. 

For  a  period  of  five  months  I  was  stationed  at 
El  Paso,  Texas,  making  inspections  of  live  stock 
imported  into  this  country  from  Mexico.  My 
territory  extended  along  the  Mexican  border  for 
a  distance  of  about  three  hundred  miles  on  each 
side  of  El  Paso. 

At  that  time  Mexico  had  no  rules  or  regula- 
tions affecting  live  stock  diseases  and  the  U.  S. 
government  regulations  on  Mexican  stock  cov- 
ered all  communicable  diseases.  The  U.  S. 
inspectors  were  supposed  to  "spot"  anything  and 
everything  on  Mexican  stock  presented  for 
importation  into  this  country;  the  inspectors 
could  use  their  judgement  to  a  great  extent. 


WITH  UNCLE  SAM  41 

This  work  was  very  interesting,  but  no  "snap" 
by  any  means.  The  transportation  and  hotel 
accommodations  were  far  from  being  first-class, 
and  the  inspector  found  many  things  to  worry 
about. 

I  remember  one  instance  in  which  I  was 
detailed  to  make  an  inspection  of  Mexican  cat- 
tle across  the  line  from  Columbus,  N.  M.  I  left 
El  Paso  at  six  in  the  evening  on  a  mixed  freight 
and  passenger  train,  arriving  at  Columbus  about 
midnight.  Columbus  at  that  time  consisted  of 
the  depot,  a  section  house,  and  the  cow  pens. 
Getting  off  the  train,  I  asked  the  depot  agent 
where  I  could  get  a  night's  lodging.  He  said 
there  was  no  place  "in  town"  where  they  put  up 
travelers,  but  there  was  a  man  living  about  a  mile 
west  who  "usually  took  them  in."  He  pointed 
out  a  light  to  me  in  that  direction,  saying,  "See 
that  light?     Well,  that's  the  place." 

I  did  not  like  the  idea  of  walking  a  mile 
through  that  rattlesnake  desert  at  midnight;  I 
followed  him  into  the  depot  and  asked  permis- 
sion to  sleep  on  the  floor.  At  first  he  refused  my 
request;  but  when  I  told  him  I  was  a  federal 
officer,  and  after  he  had  taken  a  look  at  my 
badge,  he  said  I  might  stay. 

So  I  made  a  pillow  of  my  grip  and  slept  away. 

About  2  o'clock  I  awoke,  chilled  to  the  bone. 
Although  the  month  was  July,  I  was  experienc- 
ing one  of  those  cold  nights  so  common  in  that 
high  altitude;  I  don't  believe  I  ever  suffered  so 
from  cold,  before  or  since,  as  I  did  there  that 
July  night. 

I  found  it  impossible  to  sleep  again  and  got 


42        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

up  with  the  intention  of  building  a  fire  some- 
where outside  to  get  warm  by,  only  to  find  that  I 
had  no  matches.  So  I  began  to  walk  up  and 
down  the  track,  keeping  it  up  until  sunrise, 
somewhere  around  four  o'clock. 

About  six  o'clock  the  agent  got  up  and  was 
kind  enough  to  invite  me  upstairs  to  breakfast,  a 
breakfast  that  I  enjoyed  too,  thankfully. 

I  had  just  finished  the  breakfast  when  a  rider 
appeared  with  an  extra  horse  to  take  me  out  to 
the  herd;  twelve  miles  below  Columbus  they 
were,  he  said.  You  can  imagine  how  I  felt 
about  riding  twelve  miles  on  a  horse  after  walk- 
ing the  track  the  greater  part  of  the  night. 

And  then,  when  we  got  to  their  camp,  the  boss 
informed  me  that  the  herd  had  stampeded  during 
the  night ;  the  boys  had  been  successful  in  holding 
about  half  of  them,  around  seven  hundred  head, 
and  it  would  take  a  day  or  two  to  gather  the  run- 
aways again.  He  thought,  though,  that  I  might 
look  at  those  they  held  and  issue  a  certificate  on 
the  entire  shipment  if  I  found  these  were  alright ; 
they  were  all  "clean,"  he  was  positive,  and  he 
couldn't  see  why  that  could  not  be  done. 

I  told  him  I  could  not  do  this ;  I  would  have  to 
see  every  animal  I  certified.  However,  I  told 
him  that  I  would  inspect  the  seven  hundred  head 
they  had  now  and  give  him  a  certificate  on  that 
number  if  I  found  them  alright. 

This  he  did  not  want,  and  I  rode  back  to 
Columbus. 

It  took  nearly  two  weeks  before  the  office 
received  another  request  to  inspect  the  herd, 
when  another  inspector  was  detailed  to  the  work. 


CHAPTER  VI 

BACK  TO  MILWAUKEE 

I  remained  in  El  Paso  five  months  and  was 
transferred  again  to  Colorado  City  to  relieve  old 
Dan  McCunningham,  resigned.  This  was  vir- 
tually a  promotion  for  me  and  considering  the 
fact  that  I  was  only  a  few  months  in  the  service, 
it  should  have  elated  me  in  the  highest.  I  did 
not  look  at  it  in  this  light,  however,  and  one 
month  later  I  resigned  my  position  to  take  up  a 
road  position  with  C.  BischofT  &  Co.,  of  New 
York  City. 

This  was  at  the  time  of  the  advent  of  Prof. 
Yon  Behring's  Bovo-vaccine  for  the  immuniza- 
tion of  cattle  against  tuberculosis  and  my  duty 
was  the  introduction  of  Bovo-vaccine  among 
veterinarians,  health  officers  and  stock  raisers. 
Besides  this,  I  was  to  appear  at  various  live-stock 
meetings  and  address  them  on  the  subject.  This 
position  paid  a  good  deal  more  than  the  govern- 
ment position  and  was  a  grand  opportunity  for 
me  to  do  something  more  than  most  veterinarians 
have  a  chance  to  do.  My  territory  included  the 
states  on  both  sides  of  the  Mississippi  from  Mex- 
ico to  Canada  and  I  had  visions  of  great  variety. 

I  held  this  position  just  three  weeks.  It  took 
much  patience  for  me  to  stay  with  it  even  so  long. 
Bovo-vaccine  was  entirely  in  the  experimental 
stage  at  the  time  and  I  could  not  "talk"  it  strong 
enough.  I  could  not  bring  myself  to  the  right 
pitch  of  enthusiasm  in  the  stuff  and  of  course 
nobody  wanted  to  subject  his  cattle  to  an  experi- 
ment.   I  got  as  far  as  Kansas  City  and  then  sent 

43 


44        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

in  my  resignation,  leaving  at  once  for  my  old 
home  in  Milwaukee,  after  having  been  away  a 
year  and  two  months. 

A  few  days  after  my  arrival  in  Milwaukee,  I 
received  a  letter  from  C.  BischofT  &  Co.,  in  which 
they  expressed  their  regret  at  my  resignation 
and  urging  me  to  come  to  New  York  at  their 
expense  for  the  purpose  of  instructing  me  in  the 
art  of  introducing  Bovo- vaccine. 

This  offer  I  also  turned  down.  To  this  day  I 
have  regretted  this.  One  of  the  qualifications 
which  gave  me  the  position  with  these  people  was 
my  knowledge  of  German.  It  was  desired  that 
I  make  first-hand  translations  from  literature 
obtained  from  Behringwerk  in  Germany  and 
other  matters.  This  knowledge  of  German  had 
other  value  with  this  position  which  might  have 
come  later  and  I  have  always  been  sorry  for  my 
action  in  declining  the  offer. 

Now  I  found  myself  back  in  Milwaukee  under 
my  father's  roof.  I  had  been  gone  a  little  over 
a  year  and  had  given  the  finest  exhibition  of 
bone-headism  during  this  time  which  was  ever 
witnessed.  I  was  only  twenty-two  years  old  and 
although  Opportunity  had  already  knocked  twice 
at  my  door  I  had  set  the  dog  on  her  each  time. 

Had  I  remained  in  the  government  service  at 
Colorado  City  I  might  now  be  a  superior  officer 
in  that  organization.  Setting  this  aside,  had  I 
remained  with  C.  BischofT  &  Co.,  I  might  now  be 
hobnobbing  with  Prof,  von  Behring  himself. 
But  as  things  were,  I  was  out  of  a  job,  had  not 
even  a  bread  and  butter  practice,  and  I  was 
"broke"  besides. 


CHAPTER  VII 

I  LEAVE  FOR  TEXAS  AGAIN 

When  I  made  up  my  mind  to  return  to  my 
home  in  Milwaukee  it  was  with  no  intention  of 
doing  anything  in  particular.  I  was  floundering, 
mentally,  like  a  fish  in  a  net.  I  was  full  of  energy 
and  ambition,  but  I  could  not  become  anchored. 

While  I  was  in  the  government  service  I  saw 
many  chances  for  making  my  fortune,  by  the 
investment  of  a  few  hundred  dollars,  but  I  could 
never  assemble  the  few  hundred  dollars.  One  of 
the  opportunities  which  I  saw  at  that  time  has 
recently  come  to  the  fore  and  when  I  read  the 
notice  of  it  in  the  papers  a  few  months  ago,  I 
almost  got  the  wander-lust  again.  The  notice  in 
the  paper  referred  to  the  fact  that  the  waters  in 
the  springs  at  Fort  Stockton,  Texas,  are  heavily 
charged  with  radium;  and  of  course,  you  know 
what  that  means  for  Fort  Stockton. 

Fort  Stockton  was  one  of  the  towns  to  which 
I  made  a  number  of  trips  while  in  the  service  and 
I  could  see  a  great  future  for  it  as  a  health 
resort.  While  I  knew  nothing  about  the  radium 
in  the  water,  everything  else  was  ideal  for  the 
purpose,  and  I  endeavored  on  several  occasions 
to  interest  certain  parties  in  the  project,  but 
never  successfully. 

At  other  places  in  west  Texas  I  saw  towns 
spring  up  from  a  few  tents  to  a  thousand  inhab- 
itants in  a  few  months'  time.  Many  of  these 
towns  are  now  hustling,  solid  places  and  the  best 

45 


46        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

for  them  is  yet  to  come.  All  these  things  and 
many  more  were  constantly  almost  within  my 
grasp.  In  many  instances  a  few  hundred  dollars 
properly  placed  would  have  made  a  snug  fortune 
for  me. 

These,  and  many  other  thoughts,  began  to  cir- 
culate around  in  my  think  machine  when  I 
landed  in  Milwaukee.  Everything  seemed  small 
and  narrow  now  at  home.  In  Texas  everything 
was  done  on  a  large  scale  and  I  saw  more  money 
floating  around  in  a  few  months  in  Texas  than  I 
ever  saw  in  a  year  in  Milwaukee. 

Probably  the  reason  for  this  was,  nearly 
everybody  else  there  did  as  I  did — spent  what 
they  got  as  fast  as  they  could  lay  hands  on  it. 
Nevertheless,  the  money  works  there;  they  don't 
let  it  rest  much.  They  keep  it  busy  passing 
from  pocket  to  pocket  and  I  didn't  stop  to 
analyze  the  situation. 

The  first  time  I  went  to  Texas  the  penny  was 
seen  there  only  in  the  postoffices.  Merchants 
had  no  use  for  it.  Prices  were  all  even  money, 
nickels  or  dimes.  When  I  got  back  to  Mil- 
waukee, a  real  town  full  of  German,  penny- 
saving  people,  I  became  more  than  ever 
impressed  with  the  bigness  of  Texas,  and  all 
things  Texan.  I  looked  around  for  a  few  weeks 
and  once  more  got  on  board  the  cars  for  Hous- 
ton, having  once  again  borrowed  money  for  a 
start.  This  time  I  had  outlined  a  plan  of  prog- 
ress and  I  made  up  my  mind  to  gather  in  some 
of  that  floating  money  and  hang  on  to  it. 

How  successful  I  was  in  this  resolve  will  be 
seen  in  the  following  pages. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

IN  PRACTICE  AT  HOUSTON 

On  leaving  Milwaukee  this  time  my  plans 
were  to  return  to  Houston  and  remain  there 
until  such  a  time  as  I  would  have  an  opportunity 
to  find  an  opening  for  a  good  practice.  Hous- 
ton, itself,  was  a  fairly  good  location  at  that 
time.  It  was  a  city  of  about  sixty  thousand  with 
a  grand  country  surrounding  it,  and  there  were 
only  three  veterinarians  there,  meaning,  of 
course,  graduates.  Of  empirics  there  were  a 
number,  but  these  never  caused  me  much  con- 
cern. Any  graduate  of  ability  need  have  no  fear 
of  the  best  non-graduate  that  ever  put  a  blister 
on  an  abscess.  (Where  the  empiric  usually  has 
the  advantage  over  the  young  graduate  is  in  the 
art  of  handling  people.  Most  of  them  are  past 
masters  at  this  and  the  young  practitioner  as  a 
rule  does  not  give  this  part  of  the  business  much 
attention.  He  relies  too  much  on  his  actual  pro- 
fessional ability.  As  far  as  ''delivering  the 
goods"  is  concerned,  I  say  again,  no  non-grad- 
uate, be  he  ever  so  good,  can  stand  with  a 
graduate  of  average  worth.  I  have  "bucked"  as 
many  different  empirics,  some  of  the  best  of 
them  included,  as  any  graduate  in  the  country 
and  I  never  yet  found  it  difficult  to  make  them 
lay  down.    But  more  of  the  details  later. 

I  proceeded  to  Houston  once  more,  arriving 
there  this  time  in  the  early  part  of  February. 

47 


48        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

My  friend,  the  State  Veterinarian,  still  held 
office,  and  for  the  first  few  weeks  I  spent  the 
greater  part  of  my  time  with  him,  earning  a  few 
dollars  now  and  then,  helping  out  in  odd  cases 
and  making  a  long  distance  call  now  and  then. 
At  that  time  it  was  nothing  unusual  to  receive  a 
call  from  points  fifty  to  a  hundred  miles  away. 
Graduate  veterinarians  were  few  and  far 
between  in  Texas  in  those  days  and  one  who 
established  a  practice  and  gained  any  kind  of 
good  reputation  could  always  get  more  of  these 
long  distance  calls  than  he  could  handle.  For 
these  trips  it  was  customary  to  make  a  charge  of 
twenty-five  dollars  per  day  with  expenses. 

When  a  few  weeks  had  gone  by  in  this  man- 
ner I  opened  up  an  office  in  the  down  town 
section  on  Franklin  Street  and  hung  out  my  own 
sign.  The  State  Veterinarian  gave  me  all  the 
assistance  he  could  in  the  beginning  and  I  began 
to  do  quite  a  bit  of  work.  In  this  regard  he,  the 
State  Veterinarian,  stands  in  a  class  of  veteri- 
nary practitioners  which  is  not  very  large.  He  did 
everything  in  his  power  to  make  it  easy  for  me  to 
work  up  a  practice,  and  that  in  his  own  territory, 
within  a  few  blocks  of  his  own  office.  With  very 
few  exceptions  the  other  graduate  veterinarians 
with  whom  I  have  come  in  contact  always 
attempted  in  every  possible  manner  to  discourage 
new  beginners.  In  one  instance  phvsical  violence 
was  threatened  if  I  should  have  the  courage  to 
compete  with  a  certain  practitioner.  This  was 
not  quite  as  bad  as  an  instance,  which  I  shall 
relate  later,  in  which  two  quacks  brought  com- 


IN  PRACTICE  AT  HOUSTON  49 

petition  in  their  town  down  to  an  affair  of  sawed- 
off  shotguns;  but,  considering  that  both  parties 
were  presumed  to  be  professional  gentlemen,  it 
was  bad  enough. 

One  of  the  ways  in  which  the  State  Veteri- 
narian helped  me  was  in  turning  over  to  me  some 
of  the  long  distance  calls  which  he  could  not  find 
the  time  to  attend.  Such  calls  as  these,  fifty  to  a 
hundred  miles  from  the  office,  are  the  kind  that 
demonstrate  the  real  worth  of  the  veterinarian. 
In  such  instances  he  must  do  to  the  best  of  his 
ability  in  a  few  hours'  time,  what  he  would  do  at 
home  in  the  course  of  a  few  days  or  a  week.  He 
must  put  things  in  a  "nut  shell"  and  his  treat- 
ment must  hit  the  spot.  Also,  he  must  be  able  to 
see  ahead  and  prepare  the  owner  for  the  handling 
of  possible  complications  or  unexpected  develop- 
ments. The  man  who  can  make  good  on  these 
long  distance  cases  will  be  a  winner  anywhere 
and  it  is  good  training  for  young  fellows. 

In  a  few  years  I  did  so  much  of  this  long  dis- 
tance work  that  it  left  its  mark  on  me.  By  this  I 
mean  that  I  got  the  habit  of  handling  my  practice 
at  home  in  the  same  manner.  To  this  day  I  find 
myself  making  this  mistake  in  my  practice  every 
little  while;  a  mistake  from  a  financial  stand- 
point. I  have  treated  many  cases  of  pneumonia 
and  other  long  drawn-out  cases,  at  home,  making 
not  more  than  two  calls  and  frequently  only  one 
and  while  I  usually  get  a  proportionate  fee,  just 
the  same,  the  client  thinks  you  are  earning  your 
money  if  you  call  oftener,  and  it  is  probably  bet- 
ter to  call  oftener  in  a  home  practice.  Many  little 


50        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

things  can  be  done  for  the  patient  under  the 
veterinarian's  suggestion  which  will  hasten  the 
recovery  and  oftentimes  he  can  prevent  compli- 
cations by  seeing  his  patient  frequently. 

Very  soon  after  I  started  in  practice  on  Frank- 
lin Street  I  was  given  a  contract  for  the  veteri- 
nary attendance  on  two  hundred  head  of  mules, 
which  were  being  used  in  grading  the  right  of 
way  for  a  new  railroad,  east  of  Houston,  running 
through  the  lowlands,  sometimes  at  sea  level. 
The  main  camp  of  this  outfit  was  near  Liberty, 
Texas,  about  sixty  miles  from  Houston,  and 
according  to  my  contract  I  was  to  make  two  trips 
to  this  camp  each  week.  For  this  I  was  to  get 
fifty  dollars  per  month  for  my  services,  medicine 
and  other  essentials  to  be  paid  extra.  When  I 
had  held  the  contract  for  about  two  weeks  a  mule 
died  suddenly  and  I  was  summoned  posthaste. 
History  and  appearance,  without  autopsy, 
pointed  quite  plainly  to  anthrax,  and  as  we  were 
in  a  country  where  anthrax  was  common,  I  pro- 
cured enough  vaccine  for  the  entire  bunch  and 
vaccinated  every  one  of  them.  Xot  another  mule 
died.  It  may  not  have  been  anthrax,  although  I 
was  quite  familiar  with  anthrax  then,  having  seen 
much  of  it  while  with  the  State  Veterinarian.  At 
any  rate  I  took  no  chances  and  the  owner  of  the 
mules  was  well  satisfied.  He  had  had  experience 
with  this  disease  and  he  gladly  footed  the  bill  for 
the  vaccine.  My  contract  had  been  running  about 
six  weeks  when  the  entire  outfit  changed  hands 
and  another  veterinarian  got  my  job. 

Now,  at  the  time  of  which  I  write,  automobiles 


IN  PRACTICE  AT  HOUSTON  51 

were  not  yet  very  plentiful  and  the  livery  busi- 
ness was  still  flourishing,  with  horses  for  motive 
power.  There  was  one  large  stable  in  Houston, 
known  as  the  Wilson  Transfer  Company,  which 
at  that  time  used  several  hundred  horses. 
Through  the  influence  of  a  mutual  friend  I  was 
given  a  chance  at  the  veterinary  attendance  in 
this  stable  and  would  undoubtedly  have  been  suc- 
cessful in  landing  the  contract  for  the  entire  out- 
fit if  I  had  remained  there.  Another  live  con- 
cern whose  veterinary  services  I  performed  dur- 
ing this  time  was  the  Smithy  Cab  Line.  This 
concern  had  about  thirty  horses  and  used  them 
on  a  string  of  one-horse  cabs,  hauling  passengers 
fourteen  blocks  for  twenty-five  cents.  This  was 
the  only  concern  of  the  kind  I  ever  knew  and  it 
was  a  money  maker. 

I  was  now  doing  a  very  nice  little  bit  of  prac- 
tice and  was  just  getting  a  good  grasp  of  the 
entire  opening  when  I  received  a  letter  from  a 
friend,  a  Doctor  Thatcher,  in  El  Paso.  I  had 
met  the  doctor  while  I  was  stationed  at  El  Paso 
in  the  government  service  and  before  I  left  there 
we  had  become  very  close  friends.  Doctor 
Thatcher  was  a  graduate  of  one  of  the  old  coun- 
try schools  in  Scotland  or  England  and  had  been 
in  practice  at  El  Paso  for  about  fifteen  years 
when  I  first  met  him.  He  was  a  good  veterina- 
rian, had  seen  much  of  the  world  and  was  a  man 
whose  friendship  was  worth  something. 

In  his  letter  he  stated  that  he  had  been  ap- 
pointed bacteriologist  for  the  city  of  El  Paso 
and  wanted  a  man  to  take  charge  of  his  practice. 


62        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

If  I  wanted  to  come  he  would  pay  me  a  hundred 
dollars  per  month  salary  and  in  addition,  to  make 
it  a  little  more  interesting,  five  per  cent  on  all 
work  done.  If  I  accepted  he  would  wire  me 
transportation  and  I  might  consider  myself  en- 
gaged if  the  proposition  suited  me. 

Well,  it  did  not  take  me  very  long  to  decide. 
I  believe  within  an  hour  after  I  received  the  let- 
ter, I  had  sent  him  a  telegram,  accepting  the  of- 
fer and  asking  him  to  forward  the  transportation. 
The  latter  was  of  some  moment;  from  Houston 
to  El  Paso  is  eight  hundred  and  twenty-five 
miles.  At  three  cents  a  mile  this  made  twenty- 
four  dollars  and  seventy-five  cents,  and  I  could 
well  make  use  of  so  much  money  in  those  days. 

Within  a  couple  of  days  I  had  collected  a  few 
bills  that  I  had  outstanding,  sold  my  few  pieces 
of  office  furniture  and  said  good-bye  to  Hous- 
ton and  my  friends  there  for  the  last  time.  This 
was  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1906,  and  I  have  not 
been  there  since. 


CHAPTER  IX 

EL  PASO 

With  my  removal  to  El  Paso  began  an  era  of 
prosperity  for  me  which  lasted  for  two  or  three 
years. 

I  had  "made  good"  in  Houston  during  the 
short  time  I  was  in  business  for  myself  there. 
That  is,  I  had  laid  the  foundation  for  a  good 
practice  there,  but  I  had  not  made  any  money. 
I  just  about  made  ends  meet  and  that  was  all. 
I  had  demonstrated  to  my  own  satisfaction,  how- 
ever, that  I  had  the  stuff  in  me  to  work  up  and 
hold  a  good  practice  if  I  could  only  overcome  my 
wanderlust. 

As  I  sat  in  the  train  speeding  towards  El  Paso 
I  took  an  inventory  of  my  various  maneuvers  up 
to  that  period  and  I  somewhat  reluctantly  put 
Houston,  along  with  the  rest  of  my  flings  at 
"Miss  Opportunity,"  into  the  scrap  heap  of  my 
career. 

With  all  my  roaming  about  and  my  numerous 
flings  at  chance  I  had  one  thing  of  which  I  was 
justly  proud.  This  was  the  fact  that,  although 
I  had  led  a  sort  of  adventurous,  free-lance  exist- 
ence up  to  this  time,  I  had  not  wandered  from  the 
path  of  gentlemanly  conduct.  Although  I  had 
come  in  contact  with  many  breeds  and  types  of 
men  I  remained  true  to  my  father's  teachings. 
Although  I  was  a  great  part  of  the  time  sur- 
rounded by  gamblers  and  in  contact  with  gam- 

53 


54        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

bling,  I  never  gambled.  In  like  manner,  with 
every  opportunity  and  every  inducement  to 
become  a  drinking  man,  I  was  always  temperate. 
I  drank  a  glass  of  beer  when  I  thought  it  would 
do  me  good,  and  at  times  I  drank  whiskey;  but 
not  at  any  time  enough  to  get  under  its  influence. 
The  only  reason  I  did  not  have  a  bank  account 
and  a  good  practice  was  because  I  let  wanderlust 
get  the  best  of  me. 

I  had  a  good  name,  professionally,  and  outside 
of  the  fact  that  I  was  beginning  to  get  the  repu- 
tation of  being  a  rover,  I  had  nothing  to  be 
ashamed  of.  With  a  thorough  realization  of  my 
status  quo  and  a  firm  resolve  to  become  anchored, 
I  arrived  in  El  Paso. 

My  friend,  Doctor  Thacher,  was  happy  to  see 
me  and  I  was  very  happy  to  see  that  he  had 
equipped  a  neat  veterinary  infirmary  during  my 
absence,  operating  tables,  sterilizers,  electric  den- 
tal machines  and  other  modern  appliances  not 
omitted.  At  this  point  I  may  remark  that  many 
of  our  eastern  colleagues  would  be  surprised  if 
they  could  see  the  numbers  of  modern,  fully 
equipped  veterinary  hospitals  throughout  the 
west.  Even  in  many  of  the  small  towns  one  will 
find  such  institutions  frequently. 

My  work  was  cut  out  for  me  and  began  the 
moment  I  arrived.  The  practice  was  a  mixed 
practice,  horses,  mules,  cattle  and  dogs.  The  lat- 
ter constituted  nearly  fifty  per  cent  of  our 
patients. 

Like  many  other  people  in  the  north  I  had  the 
impression  that  mules  were  practically  immune  to 


EL  PASO  55 

most  diseases  and  conditions  which  affect  the 
horse.  This  error  was  soon  corrected.  I  do  not 
know  of  a  single  condition  for  which  I  was  ever 
employed  to  treat  horses  which  I  have  not  also 
found  in  mules;  excepting,  of  course,  conditions 
confined  to  and  resulting  from  pregnancy  in  the 
female.  Mules  with  their  mammary  glands  con- 
gested and  containing  lacteal  secretion  I  saw 
frequently.  Cases  of  pregnancy  have  been  re- 
ported in  mules ;  I  never  saw  one. 

While  I  knew  our  practice  here  was  very  large 
and  realized  that  I  was  working  quite  hard,  I 
did  not  realize  the  real  worth  of  the  business  un- 
til I  figured  up  the  day-book  at  the  end  of  the 
first  month.  To  my  great  astonishment  I  found 
that  we  had  done  nearly  eight  hundred  dollars 
in  total  that  month. 

Right  here  I  want  to  bring  out  a  point  or 
two:  The  fees  obtained  at  that  time  were  not 
much  short  of  exorbitant  and,  thinking  back,  I 
sometimes  wonder  how  we  could  get  them.  Ordi- 
nary dentistry,  floating,  was  regularly  three  dol- 
lars. If  we  had  to  cut  off  a  long  enamel  point 
with  the  cutters,  we  charged  a  dollar  extra. 
"Wolf  teeth"  were  half  a  dollar  each,  extra.  It 
was  nothing  unusual  to  have  a  total  charge  of 
five  dollars  for  "fixing"  a  mouth.  Night  calls 
had  a  fixed  fee  of  five  dollars,  even  if  only  a 
few  blocks  from  the  office.  In  a  case  of  flatulent 
colic,  tapping  was  counted  as  an  operation  and 
five  dollars  was  added  to  the  service  for  this  per- 
formance. 

A  big  revenue  was  derived  at  that  time  from 


56        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

the  inspection  of  horses  which  were  shipped 
through  El  Paso  en  route  to  California  and  Ari- 
zona. These  states  required  veterinary  health 
certificates  for  all  horses  and  mules  entering 
there.  The  charge  we  made  for  such  inspections 
was  ten  dollars  per  car  load.  For  just  three  or 
four  head  we  charged  five  dollars.  It  was  a 
rough  inspection,  all  that  was  required,  and  usu- 
ally could  be  done  in  a  few  minutes'  time. 

For  the  removal  of  retained  secundines  in  cows 
the  charge  was  ten  dollars.  Roaring  operations 
were  fifty  dollars.  Country  calls  were  one  dol- 
lar per  mile.  With  such  fees  it  was  a  real  pleas- 
ure to  work,  and  I  wish  I  could  get  them  today. 

However,  I  found  that  the  actual  net  profit  in 
a  practice  here  running  seven  or  eight  hundred 
dollars  a  month,  would  not  be  much  more  than  in 
a  practice  in  the  old  states  running  three  or  four 
hundred  dollars.  Rent  and  living  were  very  high. 
Drugs  cost  us  big  money.  Help,  feed,  bedding, 
everything  was  high.  We  had  to  get  big  fees  to 
make  it  go. 

We  used  much  printers'  ink  to  get  the  business 
there  in  those  days.  I  remember  a  time  when  we 
carried  a  full  page  advertisement  in  one  of  the 
daily  papers.  This  advertisement  contained  cuts 
of  views  of  our  hospital  and  appeared  every  Sat- 
urday. 

The  only  competition  we  had  here  was  during 
the  winter  months  when  the  "lungers"  came  to 
El  Paso.  El  Paso  has  quite  a  reputation  as  a 
resort  for  consumptives,  the  high  altitude  and  dry 
air  making  it  ideal.    Usually  there  was  a  veteri- 


EL  PASO  57 

narian  or  two  among  these  health-seekers,  who 
would  do  a  little  light  practice.  Our  only  objec- 
tion to  that  was  the  fact  that  they  were  mostly 
from  states  where  veterinarians  worked  cheap  and 
they  interfered  with  our  regular  rate  of  charges, 
working  too  cheap. 

We  frequently  were  called  to  Jaurez,  on  the 
Mexican  side  of  the  river,  where  there  was  a 
Mexican  practitioner.  He  did  very  little  work, 
however,  and  did  not  give  us  any  trouble.  Things 
were  running  along  smoothly  for  me  and  I  soon 
had  things  well  in  hand. 

Doctor  Thatcher  had  been  giving  me  practice 
but  little  attention,  being  kept  busy  at  his  post 
as  city  bacteriologist.  When  this  did  not  occupy 
his  time  he  worked  at  a  process  for  making  alcohol 
from  a  cactus  plant  which  grows  thickly  in  that 
region.  By  fall  of  the  same  year  he  had  per- 
fected a  process  which  was  satisfactory  and  he 
proceeded  to  organize  a  company  for  the  purpose 
of  erecting  a  distillery. 

This  he  carried  out  successfully  and  as  his  time 
was  now  entirely  taken  up  he  wanted  to  dispose 
of  the  veterinary  practice  and  he  gave  me  the 
first  chance  to  buy  it.  This  was  in  November. 
I  had  now  been  with  him  about  five  months  and 
although  I  had  been  earning  a  good  salary,  I  had 
not  saved  a  cent,  having  used  the  money  as  fast 
as  I  got  it  to  pay  some  of  my  debts. 

So,  here  I  was  with  an  opportunity  to  become 
the  owner  of  a  practice  which  I  knew  fully  and 
which  I  had  handled  successfully,  but  without  a 
cent  of  money  to  pay  for  it  with. 


58        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

After  some  casting  about  I  was  lucky  enough 
to  find  an  "angel,"  as  theatrical  folks  say.  He 
was  a  mining  man  who  frequently  spent  a  few 
hours  at  our  infirmary  as  a  spectator  at  oper- 
ations. 

He  found  the  work  interesting  and  when  I 
informed  him  one  day  that  the  place  was  for  sale 
he  wanted  to  know  why  I  did  not  buy  it.  I  told 
him  I  had  no  money  and  why  I  had  none.  He 
knew  me  as  a  sober,  hustling  young  fellow  and 
he  also  knew  the  practice  was  a  paying  propo- 
sition. After  some  talk  he  promised  to  put  his 
money  against  my  work,  on  the  basis  of  an  equal 
interest  for  each  of  us. 

This  looked  good  enough  to  me,  at  that  time, 
and  I  agreed.  We  bought  the  business  next  day 
for  two  thousand  dollars,  my  partner  paying 
$500  cash,  the  balance  to  be  paid  off  at  the  rate 
of  one  hundred  dollars  per  month. 

Now  I  had  a  half  interest  in  the  business,  with 
"strings"  to  it.  Today  I  can  see  that  I  did  not 
make  a  good  bargain,  but  at  the  time  I  felt  pretty 
good  over  it. 

In  the  first  place,  our  expense  of  running  this 
place  was  just  about  three  hundred  dollars  per 
month.  We  had  to  make  ten  dollars  every  day 
for  the  expenses  before  we  had  anything  for  our- 
selves. The  way  the  practice  had  been  running 
this  was  all  right,  but  I  neglected  to  figure  the 
influence  which  the  Doctor's  political  position 
had  given  the  practice.  As  soon  as  we  bought 
him  out,  much  of  this  business  fell  away,  not  from 
lack  of  help  on  his  part,  either. 


EL  PASO  59 

In  the  second  place,  we  bought  no  accounts 
collectible.  Literally,  we  were  starting  from  the 
ground  up.  It  takes  some  time  to  get  enough 
money  on  the  books  to  insure  a  steady  inflow  of 
cash. 

Luckily,  we  had  dated  the  first  hundred  dollar 
note  three  months  ahead.  This  gave  us  a  chance 
to  get  our  breath,  anyhow. 

The  only  good  stroke  I  did  in  this  deal  was 
shortly  before  this  first  note  came  due.  I  went  to 
the  Doctor  and  asked  him  how  much  he  would 
take  for  the  fifteen  notes  in  a  lump  sum.  He 
agreed  to  take  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 
I  saw  my  partner  and  got  him  to  borrow  the 
money,  giving  in  return  for  it  twenty-five  fifty 
dollar  notes  signed  by  us  conjointly  and  due  one 
each  month.  By  doing  this  I  made  two  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  for  us  and  at  the  same  time  I  cut 
the  payments  in  half.  We  could  not  have  paid 
the  hundred  dollar  notes.  Fifty  dollars  per  month 
was  bad  enough. 

I  failed  to  see  at  that  time  that  I  was  really 
working  out  three-fourths  of  the  price  we  were  to 
pay.  My  partner  paid  in  five  hundred  dollars. 
I  had  to  do  the  work  to  pay  off  fifteen  hundred. 

At  no  time  after  we  bought  the  place  did  the 
practice  run  over  four  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
a  month.  One  month  it  was  only  three  hundred. 
My  partner  was  not  getting  much  interest  on  his 
five  hundred  dollars  and  he  soon  became  dis- 
gusted. He  even  suspected  me  of  juggling  the 
accounts. 

I  might  have  remained  and  fought  the  thing 


60        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

out  but  my  efforts  were  cut  short  early  the  fol- 
lowing spring.  In  treating  a  case  of  puerperal 
infection  in  a  cow  I  became  virulently  infected 
and  was  put  out  of  the  running.  After  several 
months'  treatment  my  physician  advised  a  course 
of  water  treatment  at  Hot  Springs.  I  collected 
what  bills  I  could,  paid  what  we  owed  and  sold 
my  half  interest  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  dol- 
lars, leaving  for  Hot  Springs,  Arkansas,  the 
same  day. 

I  had  not  made  any  money  on  this  venture  but 
I  did  not  lose  any,  either.  I  at  least  paid  off  a 
few  of  my  debts  with  my  earnings  of  the  first  few 
months.  When  I  left  El  Paso  this  time  I  had 
about  a  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars  in  my 
pocket.  I  bought  a  ticket  to  Hot  Springs,  via 
Fort  Worth  and  Dallas. 

I  arrived  in  Dallas  in  the  evening  of  the  next 
day  and  could  have  made  immediate  connections 
and  gone  right  through  to  Hot  Springs.  I 
wanted  to  see  the  country,  however,  and  so 
decided  to  stay  in  Dallas  over  night  and  take  an 
early  morning  train.  I  left  Dallas  the  next 
morning  at  half  past  seven  on  the  "St.  Louis 
Cannon  Ball,"  a  fast  train. 

About  ninety  miles  east  of  Dallas,  just  after 
we  had  passed  through  a  small  station  called 
Edge  wood,  the  rails  spread  as  we  rounded  a  curve 
heading  into  a  bridge  and  we  had  a  real  wreck. 
I  came  out  with  a  few  scratches  and  torn  clothes, 
for  which  I  collected  seventy-five  dollars  from  the 
railroad  company  when  I  reached  Hot  Springs. 
I  made  myself  useful  at  the  scene  of  the  wreck 


EL  PASO  61 

by  giving  first  aid  to  the  injured.  I  was  the 
nearest  approach  to  a  physician  on  the  train  and 
I  used  up  a  small  supply  of  emergency  hypoder- 
mics which  I  carried  in  my  grip. 

When  I  had  been  at  Hot  Springs  about  three 
weeks  and  had  just  about  spent  my  few  dollars 
for  doctor  bills  and  board,  I  decided  to  leave  and 
take  a  chance  on  my  recovery.  The  treatments 
there  did  not  do  much  for  me;  they  may  be  all 
right  for  specific  blood  poison  but  my  case  was 
different.  My  infection  was  undoubtedly  due  to 
streptococci  or  staphylococci. 

From  Hot  Springs  I  went  to  Little  Rock,  in 
the  same  state,  and  I  found  it  one  of  the  most 
ambitious  towns  I  ever  saw.  There  I  met  a  fine 
veterinarian  in  the  person  of  a  Doctor  Merchant 
with  whom  I  became  very  well  acquainted  a  year 
or  two  later.  I  tried  to  get  a  position  as  assistant 
there  but  could  not,  and  as  I  saw  no  other  open- 
ing, I  left  in  a  day  or  two  for  Fort  Smith,  also  in 
Arkansas. 

Here  I  met  what,  to  my  mind,  was  one  of  the 
best  all-round  practitioners  I  ever  encountered. 
Doctor  May  was  then  a  young  man,  but  he  had 
the  delivery  of  a  veteran.  And  in  later  years  he 
has  made  good  there. 

My  money  was  now  all  gone  and  I  borrowed 
twenty-five  dollars  from  the  Doctor.  With  this 
I  set  out  for  Oklahoma  City,  where  I  looked 
around  for  a  day  and  then  took  train  for  El  Reno, 
Olahoma.  I  had  a  trunk  full  of  books  and  instru- 
ments with  me,  and  as  I  only  had  a  few  dollars 


62        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

left  when  I  got  to  El  Reno,  I  had  to  open  my 
trunk  and  look  for  something  to  do. 

I  got  permission  to  "hang  out"  at  a  stable 
called  the  "Red  Barn"  and  began  to  look  around 
for  veterinary  work.  There  was  only  one  veteri- 
narian there  and  it  looked  as  though  I  could  do  a 
little,  anyhow.  But  in  two  weeks  I  got  only  one 
case,  and  that  case  I  remember  well. 

Next  to  the  stable  where  I  "hung  out"  was 
another  stable  called  the  "Blue  Barn."  In  this 
"Blue  Barn"  a  quack  "hung  out."  (Hang  out 
and  hung  out  are  the  only  appropriate  terms  for 
veterinary  offices  in  livery  stables.)  This  quack 
was  a  good  old  soul,  and  he  later  loaned  me  some 
money  to  get  out  of  town.  At  any  rate,  he  had  a 
case  which  he  wanted  me  to  handle  for  him,  and 
that  is  the  one  case  I  got  in  the  two  weeks  I  was 
there.  It  was  a  case  of  necrosis  of  the  tail  in 
a  fine  mare,  said  to  have  resulted  from  keeping 
the  tail  tied  up  with  a  tight  leather  shoe-lace  for 
two  or  three  days  during  a  rainy  spell.  I  ampu- 
tated the  tail  with  a  pocket-knife,  charged  him 
five  dollars,  and  the  result  was  good. 

I  left  El  Reno,  leaving  my  trunk  with  a  few 
books  and  a  dental  halter  as  security  for  the  loan. 
I  have  never  redeemed  them. 


CHAPTER  X 

MEXICAN   PRACTICE 

During  the  time  that  I  was  engaged  in  prac- 
tice in  El  Paso  probably  twenty-five  per  cent  of 
my  work  was  among  the  Mexican  inhabitants  of 
El  Paso  and  the  Mexican  town  of  Juarez  across 
the  river  from  El  Paso. 

While  most  of  the  live-stock  owned  by  them 
was  an  inferior  grade  of  stuff  they  were  not  back- 
ward about  employing  a  doctor  for  them. 

I  found  the  Mexicans  very  desirable  clients. 
They  have  great  faith  in  medicine  and  will  faith- 
fully follow  the  doctor's  instructions  if  they  have 
confidence  in  him. 

They  pay  especial  attention  to  details  smack- 
ing of  "hocus-pocus"  methods;  such  items,  for 
instance,  as  giving  a  certain  medicine  seven  times 
a  day,  or  just  at  a  certain  hour.  Once  a  doctor 
gets  into  their  favor  his  success  among  the  lot 
of  them  is  assured;  they  are  lavish  and  free  in 
their  praise  of  him. 

Only  in  one  regard  must  they  be  kept  in  line, 
and  that  is  along  money  matters.  Once  they 
understand  that  you  expect  your  pay  promptly 
they  will  not  ask  for  credit.  My  rule,  except  in 
the  case  of  the  more  well-to-do  families,  was  to 
work  for  cash  only.  I  never  hesitated  to  inform 
them  in  advance  what  the  fee  would  be.  In  the 
three  or  four  years  that  I  practiced  among  them 
I  lost  only  a  few  dollars  in  bad  accounts. 

63 


64        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

One  had  to  admire  their  grit  and  optimism  in 
the  face  of  grave  cases  of  sickness  or  accident 
among  their  animals.  The  most  lowly  and  poor 
among  them  would  not  be  deterred  from  sub- 
mitting the  case  to  the  doctor  even  if  the  fee 
incurred  was  much  beyond  their  means.  If  the 
doctor  could  give  them  reasonable  assurance  that 
the  result  would  be  good  they  would  invariably 
say,  "go  to  it." 

Among  the  upper  class  of  Mexicans  it  was  the 
custom  of  all  American  practitioners  to  charge 
excessively  high  fees;  it  was  not  only  a  custom, 
but  a  necessity  in  a  way.  In  fact,  should  you  do 
your  work  for  an  ordinary  fee  the  chances  are 
they  would  not  employ  you  again,  no  matter 
how  successful  you  were.  It  seems  that  they 
rated  the  practitioner's  worth  according  to  his 
fee — within  sane  bounds,  of  course. 

Say  you  are  called  to  treat  a  horse  belonging  to 
an  upper  class  Mexican — a  case  of  acute  indiges- 
tion, for  instance,  requiring  your  constant  attend- 
ance for  four  or  five  hours  of  the  night.  If  you 
are  not  a  tender-foot,  and  if  you  ever  expect  to 
stand  "ace-high"  with  that  "grandee"  you  will 
send  your  bill  the  next  morning  for  one  hundred 
dollars. 

I  made  a  trip  to  Torreon,  Mexico,  which  is 
518  miles  below  the  border,  one  winter.  I  had 
been  given  some  inducement  by  a  drug  house 
there  to  locate  there  for  practice.  There  was  no 
veterinarian  there  and,  in  all,  it  was  a  good  prop- 
osition. I  was  doing  fairly  well  in  El  Paso,  how- 
ever, and  after  I  had  gone  down  and  looked  the 


MEXICAN  PRACTICE  65 

field  over  I  decided  in  favor  of  El  Paso  and  the 
good  old  U.  S.  A. 

Anyhow,  while  I  was  down  there  looking  the 
field  over  I  was  introduced  to  a  Mexican  who 
was  conducting  a  large  dairy  in  a  neighboring 
town  called  Gomez  Palacio.  When  he  was 
informed  that  I  was  a  veterinarian  he  would  not 
leave  me  until  I  had  promised  to  come  to  his  town 
to  examine  one  of  his  cows.  He  was  a  fine,  gen- 
tlemanly fellow;  Jose  Sanchez  Alvarez  was  his 
name,  and  you  have  since  seen  his  name  in  news 
items  about  the  Mexican  revolution. 

His  town  was  connected  to  Torreon  by  an 
electric  street  car  line  and  I  went  over  early  the 
next  morning. 

His  dairy  was  a  fine  establishment,  milking 
around  75  cows,  and  every  cow  in  the  place  was 
a  Holstein.  He  told  me  that  all  his  cows  were 
bought  in  the  States  and  that  he  frequently  paid 
$300  to  $450  gold  for  a  cow.  I  knew  this  before 
he  told  me,  because  I  had  inspected  one  ship- 
ment that  came  through  El  Paso  and  the  owner 
of  the  shipment  informed  me  that  every  cow  in 
the  lot  would  bring  between  $300  and  $500  in 
gold.  This  means  from  $600  to  $1,000  Mexican 
money,  which  will  give  you  a  fair  idea  of  how 
they  spend  their  money  down  there.  These  cows 
were  no  purebreds,  just  good  cows. 

When  I  had  been  shown  all  over  the  establish- 
ment he  brought  out  the  cow  that  I  was  to  exam- 
ine. There  was  some  impediment  to  respiration 
— a  solid  enlargement  the  size  of  a  goose  egg  in 
the  upper  tracheal  region.    Apparently  it  was  a 


66        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

fibrous  growth,  producing  the  dyspnea  by  direct 
pressure.  As  I  remember  it  now,  I  recommended 
its  enucleation.  But  I  did  not  want  the  job, 
because  the  day  before  I  had  met  a  friend  in  Tor- 
reon  who  "stood  in"  with  the  railroad  men;  he 
was  leaving  for  El  Paso  on  this  day  and  he 
thought  he  could  work  it  so  that  I  would  get  free 
passage  home  if  I  went  with  him. 

So,  when  Senor  Alvarez  wanted  to  know  what 
my  fee  would  be  for  the  operation  I  thought  I 
would  name  a  figure  so  exorbitant  that  he  would 
back  down.  I  told  him  the  operation  itself  would 
cost  him  $100,  and  the  after  treatment  would  cost 
him  probably  another  hundred.  Without  hes- 
itating two  seconds  he  bade  me  proceed  to  work 
at  once.  Here  I  was  "in  a  pickle";  sure,  $200 
was  no  small  sum;  but  I  would  have  to  hang 
around  a  week  or  ten  days  to  earn  it  all.  I 
wanted  to  go  home  that  night  with  my  friend;  I 
had  decided  not  to  locate  in  Torreon  anyhow, 
and  I  wanted  to  get  back  on  the  job  in  El  Paso. 
That  was  always  my  style : — now  or  never,  whole 
loaf  or  none.  I  was  like  a  mule  in  that  respect; 
you  might  have  offered  me  the  governorship  of 
the  state  of  Coahuila,  if  I  had  to  stay  there  longer 
than  the  hour  for  that  night  train  I  would  have 
refused  the  job  and  all  the  graft  that  went  with  it. 

But  here  I  stood ;  Alvarez  had  taken  me  up  on 
my  own  figures.  And,  by  George,  he  was  so  nice 
and  gentlemanly  about  it !  But  I  had  made  up 
my  mind  to  hike  for  home  that  night,  and  there 
was  some  mule  in  me,  you  know.  I  fixed  it  up 
like  this : 


MEXICAN  PRACTICE  67 

"All  right,  sir;  but,  in  order  to  be  able  to  make 
the  dissection  without  endangering  the  life  of  the 
cow  by  death  from  hemorrhage,  we  must  use 
chloroform  anesthesia.  The  danger  of  accident- 
ally wounding  either  the  carotid  artery  or  the 
jugular  vein  is  exceedingly  great  in  the  region  in 
which  the  tumor  lies;  to  reduce  this  danger  to  a 
minimum  we  will  resort  to  the  chloroform 
anesthesia  with  the  object  of  making  sudden 
jerky  head  movements  impossible. 

"But,  to  obtain  the  best  and  most  smooth 
results  with  chloroform  we  must  enforce  a  fast  of 
twenty-four  hours  on  the  patient.  I  will  be  here 
tomorrow  at  this  time  to  operate." 

This  looked  O.  K.  to  his  highness,  and  we 
parted. 

If  that  cow  gets  nothing  to  eat  until  I  arrive 
to  perform  that  operation  she  is  pretty  hollow  by 
this  time.  And  really,  it  was  a  pretty  low-down 
trick  on  my  part!  But  then,  I  wanted  to  get 
back  to  the  States,  and  there  was  some  mule  in 
me,  you  know. 

I  left  that  night  with  my  friend.  And  the  joke 
of  it  was  that  his  "pull"  was  no  good  on  the  train; 
we  had  to  pay  our  fare  just  the  same  as  the  rest 
of  the  passengers.  But  I  didn't  care;  I  was  head- 
ing for  the  good  old  U.  S.  A.,  and  that  was  good 
enough  for  me. 

What  I  wanted  to  illustrate  by  this  incident  is 
that  you  can't  scare  the  "high-ups"  in  Mexico 
with  a  $100  fee  on  a  cow  case. 

In  the  interior  of  Mexico  I  saw  a  type  of  horse 
quite  frequently  which  I  have  never  seen  any- 


68        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 


where  else.  These  horses  somewhat  resemble  the 
English  thoroughbred,  but  they  are  smaller  and 
have  even  finer  bone.  They  are  game  to  the  core, 
and  no  better  saddle  horses  could  be  desired. 
They  are  said  to  be  the  offspring  of  some  of  the 
old  Spanish  breeds  which  were  brought  to  Mexico 
centuries  ago. 

The  average  Mexican  horse  is  a  small, 
scrawny,  nondescript  sort  of  nag,  always  in  poor 

flesh  and  usually  full  of 
spavines,  ringbones  and 
other  blemishes. 

The  common  man's 
horse  in  Mexico  is  not  a 
horse  at  all  but  the  burro. 
They  sell  for  from  five 
dollars  to  thirty  or  forty 
dollars,  depending  on 
their  size  and  work-abil- 
ity. The  ordinary  burro 
of  about  the  size  of  the 
average  Shetland  pony  will  carry  a  pack  weigh- 
ing around  250  pounds  all  day.  They  are  used 
mostly  for  packing;  only  occasionally  are  they 
worked  in  harness. 

The  burro  seems  to  be  immune  to  all  diseases ; 
it  is  a  rare  thing  to  see  a  lame  one,  even.  They 
reach  a  great  age  and  are  part  and  parcel  of 
Mexico;  I  can  not  imagine  Mexico  without  the 
burro. 

Another  class  of  patronage  that  I  enjoyed  in 
El  Paso  was  that  of  the  Chinese.  El  Paso  har- 
bors a  Chinese  quarter  numbering  around  500 


They   are    said   to   be   the   off 

spring  of  some  of  the  old 

Spanish  breeds 


MEXICAN  PRACTICE  69 

souls,  and  the  Rio  Grande  valley  below  El  Paso 
is  populated  by  them  in  considerable  numbers. 
In  the  city  they  conduct  mostly  stores,  restau- 
rants, laundries,  etc.  In  the  valley  they  pursue 
truck  gardening,  raising  most  of  the  vegetables 
used  in  the  city.  Quite  a  number  of  them  own  a 
few  horses ;  they  are  about  the  poorest  horsemen 
imaginable  and  employ  veterinarians  regularly. 
Their  faith  in  medicine  and  in  the  art  of  healing 
is  even  greater  than  that  of  the  Mexicans;  they 
obey  the  doctor's  instructions  implicitly  and  are 
most  appreciative  of  good  service  and  attention. 
On  top  of  this  they  are  absolutely  honest,  paying 
their  bills  promptly  and  generously;  white  folks 
can  well  afford  to  take  lessons  from  John  China- 
man in  this  respect.  The  only  bad  part  about 
him  is  the  fact  that  he  is  a  prosperity  killer;  he 
takes  in  more  than  he  gives  out.  In  fact,  aside 
from  emergency  expenses,  he  spends  so  little 
money  for  his  own  subsistence,  clothing,  etc.,  that 
white  folks  cannot  compete  with  him  in  any  line 
of  business  he  undertakes. 

Only  in  one  regard  must  I  modify  this  state- 
ment, and  that  is  in  regard  to  his  gaming  pro- 
clivities. Most  Chinamen  of  my  acquaintance 
were  confirmed  gamblers.  However,  as  they 
gamble  chiefly  among  themselves,  no  one  outside 
of  their  clan  profits  by  it. 

I  have  seen  one,  now  and  then,  take  a  whirl  at 
roulette  during  the  big  fiesta  in  Juarez,  but 
unless  they  make  a  lucky  play  to  begin  with  they 
don't  stick  long.  And,  come  to  think  of  it,  the 
one  and  only  time  that  I  can  remember  of  a 


70        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 


Chinaman  trying  a  dishonest  trick  was  at  a  rou- 
lette table.  He  had  placed  a  chip  on  a  corner 
and  tried  to  shove  it  on  the  whole  number  when 
the  wheel  stopped ;  the  caller  caught  him  at  it. 

I  remember  a  most  amusing  incident  that  hap- 
pened in  connection  with  my  practice  among  the 
Chinese  in  the  Rio  Grande  Valley. 


With  all  of  them  pulling  on  the  rope  we  "flopped  him  over,"  and 

up  he  jumped 

A  rich  Chinese  gardener  there  sent  for  me  for 
the  purpose  of  having  me  treat  a  horse  at  his 
farm,  eight  miles  down  the  valley.  When  I 
arrived  at  the  place  I  found  a  pretty  good  look- 
ing horse  lying  flat  on  his  side  and  ten  or  twelve 
Chinese  lads  standing  in  a  circle  around  him. 
The  horse  had  been  down  flat  since  early  morning 
at  least ;  when  one  of  the  Chinks  went  to  give  him 


MEXICAN  PRACTICE  71 

his  breakfast  he  found  him  down  and  they  had 
been  unable  to  make  him  get  up.  They  told  me 
he  had  not  seemed  sick  in  the  evening  before  and, 
while  they  only  owned  him  a  few  days,  he  had 
never  given  any  trouble.  One  Chinese  boy  told 
me,  however,  that  he  was  quite  lame  on  one  hind 
leg,  but  he  could  not  say  which  one.  I  looked 
him  over  a  little  closer  then  and  I  saw  he  had  a 
big  spavin  on  the  under  leg.  As  the  fellow  says, 
"I  saw  a  light  then." 

Knowing  the  Chinese  awe  for  "hocus-pocus 
stuff"  I  thought  I  would  have  a  little  fun  out  of 
this  job.  (Mind  you,  my  charge  for  this  eight 
mile  trip  was  eight  dollars ;  }^ou  may  be  sure  they 
tried  hard  to  get  him  up  before  calling  me. ) 

Taking  my  side-line  I  first  laid  it  over  him  in 
such  a  manner  that  it  formed  a  circle  over  his 
side,  mumbling  at  the  same  time  a  few  words  like 
"foramen  lacerum  basis  cranii,"  and  allowing  the 
rope  to  remain  in  the  coiled  position  for  a  minute, 
by  the  watch.  Taking  it  off  now  I  fastened  one 
end  to  a  hind  and  a  front  leg  and  told  the  Chinese 
boys  "Now,  alright,"  and  with  all  of  them  pulling 
on  the  rope  we  "flopped  him  over;"  and  up  he 
jumped! 

The  clash  of  Chinese  tongues  that  followed 
immediately  was  something  great.  The  boss 
Chinaman  wanted  me  to  tell  him  those  words  I 
had  to  say  to  make  it  work  and  to  show  him  just 
how  to  coil  the  rope. 


CHAPTER  XI 

A  TOWN  A  DAY  IN  OKLAHOMA 

As  I  have  related  previously,  when  a  physician 
advised  me  to  go  to  Hot  Springs,  Ark.,  in  the 
spring  of  1907,  I  sold  my  interest  in  the  El  Paso 
Veterinary  Hospital  and  went.  The  treat- 
ments at  Hot  Springs  did  not  benefit  me  a  great 
deal,  and  it  is  my  opinion  that  the  baths  are  not 
indicated  in  such  infections  as  the  one  I  was  suf- 
fering from;  they  are  too  debilitating.  With  an 
infection  of  the  pus  producing  organisms,  such  as 
I  had,  this  debilitating  effect  of  the  baths  is  really 
detrimental ;  at  least,  it  was  in  my  case. 

However,  I  continued  to  take  the  baths  as  pre- 
scribed by  the  physician  until  I  was  sure  that  my 
condition  was  not  improving;  and  at  about  the 
same  time  my  money  sack  was  getting  rather  flat. 
I  concluded  then  that  I  was  losing  at  both  ends 
and  decided  to  move  on. 

This  decision,  to  move  on,  was  easily  arrived 
at;  but  where  to  move  on  to  was  not  so  easy  to 
decide. 

I  had  sold  my  practice  and  had  spent  the  few 
dollars  I  got  for  it.  I  was  now  over  a  thousand 
miles  from  home,  among  strangers,  and  with  not 
enough  money  left  to  pay  for  painting  a  good 
"shingle,"  not  to  mention  equipping  an  office. 

So  there  was  nothing  left  for  me  to  do  but  to 
"hit  the  road."  As  I  have  previously  related; 
from    Hot    Springs    I    went    to    Little    Rock, 

73 


74        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

where  I  tried  to  get  on  as  assistant  to  some  veteri- 
narian, but  was  not  successful.  However,  old 
Dr.  Merchant  advised  me  to  go  to  Fort  Smith, 
where  he  was  quite  sure  I  would  find  an  opening 
with  Dr.  May. 

Arrived  at  Fort  Smith  I  immediately  applied 
to  that  gentleman  for  a  position.  While  he  had 
no  opening  for  me  just  then  he  was  good  enough 
to  give  me  permission  to  do  a  little  work  for  him, 
enough  to  enable  me  to  get  a  few  dollars  ahead. 
I  did  not  care  to  do  this,  upon  which  the  doctor 
made  me  a  loan  of  $25.00,  saying  I  could  pay  him 
back  when  I  could  do  so  conveniently. 

He  sure  was  a  regular  good  fellow. 

With  this  money  I  left  for  Oklahoma  City, 
thinking  that  I  might  find  something  to  do  there, 
but  the  town  already  had  more  veterinarians  than 
it  required  and  none  of  them  cared  to  hire  me. 
The  town  was  too  large  to  "work,"  and  so  I 
decided  to  go  to  El  Reno. 

My  experiences  in  El  Reno  I  have  told  in  a 
previous  article.  Up  until  this  time  I  had  trod 
a  tolerable  straight  and  narrow  path  profession- 
ally considering  the  time  and  the  customs  in 
the  Southwest,  but  now  financial  pressure  due  to 
my  illness  and  the  resulting  expensive  treatment 
at  Hot  Springs  deflected  me  in  not  a  few 
instances  from  the  paths  of  professional  conduct 
that  I  would  have  chosen  under  easier  circum- 
stances. 

Leaving  El  Reno  I  travel  south  over  the  Rock 
Island  road,  stopping  off  at  every  town  along  the 
route  and  with  one  or  two  exceptions  from  twelve 


A  TOWN  A  DAY  IN  OKLAHOMA  75 

to  twenty-four  hours  was  the  length  of  my  stay 
in  any  place. 

When  I  could  get  absolutely  no  veterinary 
work  to  do  in  a  town  I  would  sell  the  local  black- 
smith or  horse-shber  some  of  by  "corn  killer." 
This  corn  killer  stunt  I  learned  from  a  veteri- 
narian in  Arkansas  and  it  was  a  winner  with  the 
blacksmiths.  It  consists  of  a  few  crystals  of 
iodin  and  a  small  vial  of  turpentine.  When  the 
corn  in  the  horse's  foot  has  been  thoroughly  pared 
out  a  few  of  the  iodin  crystals  are  placed  in  the 
cavity  and  a  few  drops  of  the  turpentine  poured 
on  it.  A  miniature  explosion  occurs  and  the 
entire  area  in  the  foot  turns  a  dark  brown  color 
at  once.  It  really  has  value  as  a  dessicant  and 
antiseptic,  as  the  resulting  chemical  change  forces 
the  iodin  into  every  crevice  of  the  horn. 

The  miniature  explosion  which  occurs,  border- 
ing on  the  spectacular,  makes  it  a  good  seller  to 
horse-shoers.  I  would  sell  them  enough  for  about 
three  applications  and  then  write  down  the  ingre- 
dients for  them,  charging  whatever  I  thought  the 
fellow  would  stand  for;  if  he  looked  like  an  "easy 
mark"  I  might  charge  him  a  five  spot,  making 
him  promise  on  his  honor  never  to  divulge  the 
secret.  Maybe  in  the  next  town,  if  I  could  do  no 
better,  I  would  sell  the  same  "secret"  for  one 
dollar. 

So  if  there  are  some  practitioners  in  Oklahoma 
now  who  are  wondering  where  their  blacksmiths 
got  this  dope  they  may  know  that  the  Itinerant 
Horse  Physician  "put  them  wise  to  it." 

In  many  of  these  Oklahoma  towns  where  no 
veterinarians  had  located  as  yet  I  was  asked  to 


76        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

treat  cases  of  exceptional  interest,  most  of  them 
being  chronic  conditions  requiring  surgical  inter- 
ference. 

One  of  the  commonest  abnormalities  which  I 
was  given  an  opportunity  to  treat  was  extreme 
volar  flexion  of  the  fetlock  joint  in  anterior 
limbs.  Why  this  condition  came  to  my  attention 
so  frequently  I  can  not  explain;  however,  in  the 
thirty-odd  towns  I  stopped  in  on  this  route  I  was 
shown  at  least  fifteen  or  twenty  such  cases. 

Some  I  endeavored  to  correct  by  performing 
tenotomy;  others  were  advised  variously  for 
treatment  or  noninterference.  What  the  result 
was  in  any  case  I  am,  of  course,  unable  to  say  as  I 
did  not  remain  long  enough  in  any  particular 
vicinity  to  witness  the  outcome. 

Another  condition  which  I  met  with  excep- 
tional frequency  was  fistula  of  the  withers,  and 
some  of  the  "rottenest"  cases  of  this  condition 
in  my  whole  experience  as  a  veterinarian  I  saw  in 
that  country.  The  regular  treatment  for  this  con- 
dition among  the  quacks  and  horse- jockeys  there 
seemed  to  be  a  certain  manner  of  filling  the 
horse's  ears  with  ground  glass. 

When  I  was  making  this  trip  there  seemed  to 
be  a  mania  among  the  people  down  there  for  cut- 
ting the  membrana  nictitans  out  of  their  horses' 
eyes.  I  would  feel  safe  to  wager  a  good  sum  of 
money  that  there  are  more  horses  in  Oklahoma 
and  parts  of  Texas  minus  this  part  of  their  anat- 
omy than  there  are  in  any  other  part  of  the  world. 

The  condition  for  which  they  perform  this 
operation  is  called  "hooks";  just  what  "hooks" 
originally  signified  I  have  not  been  able  to  learn. 


A  TOWN  A  DAY  IN  OKLAHOMA  77 

At  the  time  I  was  sojourning  there  "hooks"  was 
almost  anything  which  defied  the  diagnostic  skill 
of  the  quack  or  the  jockey.  If  a  horse  or  a  mule 
was  ailing  for  a  time  and  the  usual  dosage  with 
Harlem  oil  or  "punkin  seed  tea"  did  not  fix  him 
up  he  was  charged  with  having  the  "hooks,"  and 
condemned  to  have  his  nictitating  membrane  cut 
out  or  extracted. 

Speaking  of  "punkin  seed  tea"  reminds  me 
that  in  those  parts  this  seemed  to  be  the  popular 
colic  remedy.  When  "punkin  seed  tea"  failed 
there  was  only  one  other  hope  for  the  patient. 
This  last  hope  was  a  dose  of  fresh  chicken  guts. 
A  chicken  was  hastily  caught  and  killed  and  the 
horse  drenched  with  the  "guts"  while  they  were 
yet  warm. 

To  northern  and  eastern  practitioners  this 
sounds  like  a  regular  "made-up"  story,  I  know. 
But  Oklahoma  and  Texas  practitioners  will  ver- 
ify the  truth  of  my  statements. 

In  one  of  these  towns  I  was  requested  to  treat 
two  cases  of  open  navicular  or  coffin  joints.  The 
patients  had  picked  up  street  nails  and  the  local 
quack  had  enlarged  the  openings,  for  drainage, 
with  a  brace  and  bit.  In  both  cases  he  bored  a 
half -inch  hole  directly  into  the  joint. 

In  another  chapter  I  submit  evidence  to  prove 
that  half  the  quacks  in  practice  should  be  hanged 
and  the  other  half  put  in  jail.  Do  you  wonder 
that  I  believe  it? 

In  one  town  a  farmer  took  me  out  to  his  place 
to  show  me  a  sick  mare.  He  said  his  "veteri- 
nary," who  was  a  quack,  had  been  treating  the 
mare  for  about  a  week  without  doing  much  good. 


78        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 


He  said  he  was  mighty  glad  I  just  "happened" 
in  because  he  had  heard  that  some  of  these  col- 
lege "veterinaries"  was  smart  fellers  in  some 
things.  "Old  Doc,"  as  he  called  the  quack,  was 
pretty  good,  he  thought,  seeing  as  how  he  just 
picked  "horse-docterin"  up  all  by  himself;  but, 
somehow,  in  this  case  he  didn't  think  "old  Doc" 
was  hardly  smart  enough.  I  asked  him  what  sort 
of  diagnosis  "old  Doc"  had  made  of  the  case. 

"Well,"  said  my 
new-found  friend, 
"he  says  the  colt  is 
foundered  i  n  t  h  e 
mare."  I  asked  the 
farmer  whether 
"old  Doc"  used  an 
x-ray  outfit  t  o  a  r- 
rive  at  his  diagno- 
sis; he  said  not  so 
far  as  he  knew. 

When  we  got  to 
the  place  I  found  a 
pretty  good  sort  of 
a  mare,  heavy  in 
foal,  with  a  rupture 
of  the  prepubian 
tendon ;  her  abdo- 
men was  on  a  level  with  her  hocks. 

I  advised  the  farmer  in  regard  to  giving  proper 
assistance  at  time  of  foaling  and  described  the 
exact  condition  he  would  find  in  the  event  that 
the  mare  should  not  survive  the  ordeal  of  parturi- 
tion. I  did  the  latter  so  that  he  might  be  able  to 
"show  up"  the  quack,  which  I  am  sure  he  did,  if 
the  mare  died.     He  was  one  of  those  "long- 


y/'TH   a/ zee   lfj  Hls  sre   jHO  ,  tfer 


l£ 


Oikh't     i*s4m~_ 


A  TOWN  A  DAY  IN  OKLAHOMA  79 

horns,"  with  fire  in  his  eye,  and  I  bet  "old  Doc" 
got  some  information  he  didn't  want. 

In  the  same  town,  while  I  was  at  the  depot 
waiting  for  the  train,  another  farmer  told  me 
about  a  cow  this  same  "old  Doc"  treated  for  him. 
The  cow  died,  after  "old  Doc"  had  "worked  on 
her"  all  day,  from  "Blue  Fever"  he  said.  The 
farmer  described  the  case  to  me  in  detail,  and  if 
ever  a  description  was  given  of  a  typical  case  of 
parturient  paresis  he  gave  it. 

In  one  town  I  visited  in  Oklahoma  near  the 
Texas  line  I  met  an  old  quack  who  wanted  to  buy 
my  diploma.  He  said  that  he  had  all  the  knowl- 
edge he  or  any  horse  doctor  would  ever  require; 
all  he  wanted  now  was  a  diploma.  I  asked  him 
how  much  he  would  be  willing  to  pay  for  one. 
"Oh,"  he  says,  "I  wouldn't  mind  spending  five 
dollars  on  a  thing  like  that." 

I  told  him  he  could  probably  buy  two  or  three 
good  ones  for  five  dollars  from  some  colleges  I 
knew  and  I  gave  him  the  names  of  a  college  for 
tonsorial  artists  and  a  college  of  elocution.  I 
don't  know  how  it  ended. 

An  item  of  interest  on  this  trip  was  the  variety 
of  peculiar  "hangouts"  some  of  the  practitioners 
had. 

In  one  town  on  inquiring  the  whereabouts  of 
the  local  veterinarian  I  was  referred  to  a  second- 
hand store.  There  I  found  the  honorable  "Doc" 
dealing  in  second-hand  furniture  and  stoves 
between  calls.  He  had  no  sign  displayed  which 
would  attract  attention  to  his  "curing"  ability, 
other  than  a  collection  of  extracted  horse  teeth 
and  bottles  full  of  "bots"  and  other  specimens. 


80        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

These  were  carefully  arranged  in  one  front  win- 
dow along  with  a  large  rectal  syringe  and  a 
mouth  speculum. 

In  another  town  the  local  horse  physician  had 
his  "office"  in  a  barber  shop. 

In  still  another  a  small  cigar  factory  harbored 
the  "bot  specialist." 

But  the  fellow  whom  I  located  in  a  small 
brewery  had  the  best  headquarters  of  all;  and 
from  the  beautiful  mixture  of  scarlet  and  Yale 
blue  mingling  in  the  epidermis  of  his  nose  I 
judged  that  he  wasn't  letting  any  chance  go  by 
to  test  the  brew  between  calls. 

One  other  odd  headquarters  for  a  "Doc"  which 
I  remember  seeing  there  was  in  a  photographer's 
place. 

When  I  asked  this  quack  why  he  had  selected 
a  photograph  gallery  for  his  "hangout"  he  said, 
"I  done  it  to  help  elevate  the  perfession.  It  gives 
a  man  more  prestige." 

I  recommended  a  padded  cell  for  him. 

One  other  interesting  feature  in  connection 
with  this  part  of  my  wanderings  appertained  to 
the  peculiar  "side-lines"  which  some  of  these 
practitioners  had. 

One  of  them  sold  sewing  machines  "on  the 
side." 

Another  was  a  loan-shark  on  a  small  scale. 
He  made  a  practice  of  loaning  small  sums  to 
niggers,  charging  in  the  neighborhood  of  ten  per 
cent  a  week  interest.  When  a  nigger  came  to 
borrow  ten  dollars  from  him  he  gave  him  only 
nine,  holding  out  the  $1.00  interest  in  advance. 
At  the  time  I  met  this  quack  he  had  around  two 


A  TOWN  A  DAY  IN  OKLAHOMA  81 

hundred  dollars  loaned  out  in  small  sums  in  this 
manner.  He  seemed  to  feel  quite  proud  over  his 
financial  engineering  ability  and  although  I  was 
practically  a  stranger  to  him  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  explain  his  scheme  to  me.  Every  dollar  he 
could  squeeze  out  of  his  veterinary  practice  he 
loaned  out  on  this  plan. 

If  he  had  been  proportionately  as  successful  in 
the  veterinary  end  as  he  was  in  his  money  loaning 
scheme  he  would  have  had  J.  P.  Morgan  backed 
off  the  board  in  a  few  years'  time. 

Still  another  of  these  quacks  I  met  was  a  real 
estate  agent  on  the  side,  and  another  put  in  his 
spare  time  as  an  insurance  solicitor. 

One  quack  I  met  was  the  king  of  quackdom; 
he  was  not  only  a  quack  veterinarian,  he  was 
also  a  quack  druggist  and  a  quack  spectacle 
fitter. 

One  little  "sawed-off  "  quack  I  bumped  into  on 
this  trip  made  a  side-line  of  supplying  the  wives 
of  his  clients  with  a  "female  regulator."  He  put  it 
up  in  eight-ounce  bottles  selling  for  $1.00  and 
confided  to  me  that  his  profit  per  bottle  was 
around  ninety-two  cents. 

One  quack  I  met  below  the  Texas  line  on  this 
trip  was  a  professional  gambler!  He  pursued 
the  veterinary  game  only  when  luck  was  against 
him  and  then  just  long  enough  to  get  a  stake  to 
begin  to  gamble  on  again. 

In  that  day  and  time  a  remark  that  I  once 
heard  a  veterinarian  make  fitted  Oklahoma  to  a 
T :  "Every  darn  fool  that  can't  claim  knowledge 
of  anything  else  claims  to  know  all  about  sick 
horses." 


CHAPTER  XII 

HOW  I  BEGAN  A  REGULAR  TRAMP  EXISTENCE 

I  went  from  El  Reno  to  Chickasha,  then  in 
Indian  Territory,  and  "worked"  every  town  on 
the  Rock  Island  road  from  there  to  Henrietta, 
Texas,  and  on  the  new  railroad  through  Wichita 
Falls  to  Abilene,  Texas. 

And  a  great  experience  it  was,  indeed.  Chick- 
asha I  found  to  be  the  toughest  town  I  ever  was 
in  excepting  Pocatello,  Idaho.  I  had  not  yet 
seen  Pocatello,  Idaho,  so  Chickasha  stood  first  in 
the  list  of  hard  places  with  me  then.  Up  to  that 
time  I  had  never  seen  a  greater  aggregation  of 
"tough-mugs"  than  there  in  Chickasha.  I 
earned  one  dollar  there  between  trains,  a  period 
of  a  few  hours.  There  was  more  work  "in  sight" 
but  I  did  not  care  to  stay  over  night  in  a  cheap 
hotel  in  that  town  then.  Apologies  to  Chickasha 
if  it  has  improved  since  that  time,  as  it  no  doubt 
has.  In  the  other  towns  between  there  and  the 
Texas  line,  I  picked  up  enough  money  to  pay  my 
expenses.  My  first  move  in  getting  off  the  train 
in  these  towns  was  to  look  up  the  livery  stables. 
Here  I  could  usually  get  a  mouth  to  fix  or  a  case 
of  lameness  to  prescribe  for.  This  done,  I  usually 
looked  up  the  horseshoers;  these  fellows  could 
usually  put  me  on  the  trail  of  a  cripple  or  two 
and  as  soon  as  I  had  five  or  six  dollars  made,  I 
would  make  a  move  for  the  next  town.  In  this 
way,  although  I  was  a  tramp  veterinarian,  I 

83 


84        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

could  always  ride  first-class  trains.  In  all  my 
roving  about,  I  always  "rode  the  cushions." 

Over  the  entire  route  from  El  Reno  to  the 
Texas  line,  I  did  not  find  one  graduate  veteri- 
narian. At  one  place  in  Indian  Territory,  called 
Durant,  I  met  a  correspondence  school  chap  who 
was  a  pretty  bright  fellow  and  he  had  a  nice  little 
practice.  I  stopped  over  night  with  him  and 
found  him  a  good  man.  He  was  pretty  well 
informed  and,  I  presume,  made  some  money 
there. 

When  I  got  as  far  as  Wichita  Falls,  Texas,  I 
began  to  feel  my  health  improving  rapidly.  I 
stayed  over  night  in  Wichita  Falls,  intending  to 
leave  on  the  first  train  next  morning;  but  when 
I  got  to  the  depot  the  next  morning,  the  train 
was  marked  several  minutes  late.  Just  across 
from  the  depot  I  saw  a  livery  stable  and  I  went 
in  and  told  them  who  and  what  I  was  and  that  I 
had  just  about  twenty  minutes  in  which  to  do  a 
little  work  for  them. 

Sure!  I  was  just  the  fellow  they  were  looking 
for.  In  less  than  two  minutes  I  was  examining  a 
bad  case  of  sweeney;  in  another  two  or  three 
minutes  I  had  both  shoulders  injected  with  satu- 
rated salt  solution,  was  paid  three  dollars  for  my 
trouble  and  had  just  time  enough  to  walk  back  to 
the  depot,  buy  my  ticket  and  board  the  train  for 
the  next  town.  This  was  all  I  did  in  Wichita 
Falls.  The  town  was  a  little  too  large  for  my 
kind  of  procedure,  so  I  did  not  try  for  much. 
The  towns  which  are  good  soil  for  such  fellows 


A  REGULAR  TRAMP  EXISTENCE  85 

as  I  was  at  that  time  are  the  real  small  towns  of 
a  few  hundred  population. 

One  thing  which  I  learned  in  the  south  and 
southwest  was  that  one  could  do  almost  any  oper- 
ation or  give  almost  any  treatment  to  a  horse 
without  spending  much  time  in  tying  them  up  or 
throwing  them.  With  a  good  twitch  on  the  nose 
I  have  performed  in  the  standing  position,  oper- 
ations which,  on  the  vigorous  horses  of  the  north, 
I  would  never  attempt.  The  horses  in  the  south 
did  not  have  the  nerve  that  our  northern  horses 
have. 

My  first  stop  south  of  Wichita  Falls  was  a  new 
town  named  Monday.  It  was  a  nice  little  place 
on  the  new  railroad  and  should  be  quite  a  place  by 
this  time.  The  day  after  I  arrived  there  was  the 
monthly  stock  and  cattle  market,  a  regular 
jockey  day.  Or  rather,  this  came  on  Monday;  I 
arrived  Saturday  evening. 

As  soon  as  I  got  off  the  train  I  looked  around 
for  a  livery  stable.  I  had  not  walked  very  far 
when  I  noticed  a  bill  stuck  up  on  a  telegraph  post 
stating  that  two  veterinarians,  whose  names  I  do 
not  remember,  would  be  on  hand  Monday  to  treat 
all  diseases  of  horses  in  a  scientific  manner,  etc., 
etc.  I  walked  another  block  or  so  to  the  livery 
stable,  and  there  I  saw  another  card  tacked  up. 
Dr.  So  and  So  would  also  be  there  Monday  to  do 
some  scientific  treating. 

Counting  myself,  this  made  four  of  us;  all,  I 
presume,  ready  to  cut  prices  and  each  other's 
throats,  if  necessary.  I  did  not  care  much  about 
staying  there  after  seeing  those  signs.     I  sup- 


86        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

posed,  of  course,  that  all  of  them  were  regular 
callers  there,  and  that  they  would  probably  get 
all  the  business. 


THE  OTHER  WAS  A  HARMLE55  OLD  QUACK   WHO  „ 
SOLD  A  BOOK  HE  HAD  WRITTEN  ON  HORSE  DOCTORING 


But  I  could  not  get  away  very  well.    I  came 
in  Saturday  night  with  only  three  or  four  dollars 


A  REGULAR  TRAMP  EXISTENCE  87 

in  my  pocket.  There  were  no  trains  running  on 
Sunday;  I  had  to  stay.  When  Monday  morning 
came,  I  just  had  to  do  some  business.  My  bill 
at  the  hotel  was  over  two  dollars,  and  the  fare  to 
the  next  town  amounted  to  more  than  I  would 
have  left  after  paying  the  hotel  bill. 

So  I  stayed  and  faced  the  music.  Two  of  the 
advertising  veterinarians  were  a  couple  of  old 
quacks  whom  I  had  heard  of  before.  They  trav- 
eled about  in  a  covered  wagon  and  were  genuine 
fakers.  The  other  was  a  harmless  old  quack  who 
sold  a  book  he  had  written  on  "Horse  Doctoring" 
and  confined  his  work  to  making  a  spiel  while 
standing  on  the  seat  of  his  buggy. 

When  I  saw  what  my  competitors  for  the  day 
were  like,  I  felt  better.  I  began  to  walk  around 
among  the  people,  handing  out  my  cards  and  say- 
ing a  good  word  for  myself.  There  were  quite  a 
few  people  on  hand  and  more  were  constantly 
coming  in.  The  cards  which  I  was  passing 
around  had  my  name  printed  on  them,  giving  my 
address  as  El  Reno,  Oklahoma.  Below  my  name 
was  the  statement  that  I  had  formerly  been 
assistant  to  the  State  Veterinarian  of  Texas  and 
also  veterinarian  in  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Animal  Industry. 

This  was  true,  and  it  carried  well.  I  am  sure 
that  these  cards  saved  the  day  for  me.  I  was  a 
young,  "kiddish"  appearing  fellow,  and  would 
have  had  little  chance  against  the  grizzled,  expe- 
rienced looking  quacks  who  were  there.  I  knew 
that  if  I  got  a  chance  at  a  single  case  I  could 
make  them  "go  way  back  and  sit  down."    But 


88        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 


my  immature  appearance  was  against  me;  there- 
fore, I  will  always  believe  that  those  cards  opened 
the  way. 

There  was  not  much  veterinary  work  done 
there  that  day,  but  as  near  as  I  could  tell,  I  got 
all  that  was  there.  For  three  hours  I  fixed  horses' 


"I  never  use  a  mouth  speculum,  but  pass  one  of  my  hands  into  the 
mouth  and  feel  of  every  tooth" 

teeth;  one  horse  after  another,  just  as  fast  as  I 
could.  I  know  that  the  greater  part  of  that  time 
those  quacks  were  standing  around  in  the  crowd, 
looking  at  my  performance.  Dentistry  was  one 
thing  I  could  do  at  that  time,  and  I  had  a  few 
knacks  up  my  sleeve  which  always  created  aston- 


A  REGULAR  TRAMP  EXISTENCE  89 

ishment.  I  never  use  a  mouth  speculum,  but  pass 
one  of  my  hands  into  the  mouth  and  feel  of  every 
tooth.  Most  wolf-teeth  I  can  extract  with  my 
fingers  and  frequently  do  the  same  with  split  or 
broken  teeth  which  have  become  loosened. 

On  this  day,  the  first  horse  that  was  brought  to 
me  had  a  long  shell  of  a  molar  which  had  been 
split  through  the  middle  and  which  stood  out 
against  the  cheek.  I  could  see  that  it  was  quite 
loose  and  could  be  snapped  out  with  the  fingers, 
I  opened  the  horse's  mouth  so  that  the  ten  or 
twenty  spectators  could  see  the  tooth  and  I  took 
the  time  to  give  each  of  them  a  good  look  at  it ;  it 
really  looked  quite  formidable.  When  all  had 
seen  it,  I  reached  in  with  my  bare  hand  and 
yanked  the  thing  out.  That  was  enough  for 
them;  for  three  hours  I  fixed  horse  after  horse. 
And  the  quacks  looked  on. 

Towards  noon  it  got  extremely  hot,  about  the 
hottest  day  I  ever  experienced.  I  had  earned 
enough  money  for  one  day;  I  bought  myself  a 
big,  juicy  watermelon  and  sat  down  in  the  shade 
of  a  big  wagon  and  ate  the  whole  melon.  Next  I 
paid  my  hotel  bill,  and  then  I  bought  a  ticket 
right  through  to  Abilene,  on  the  main  line  of  the 
Texas  &  Pacific  Railway  and  at  the  end  of  a  new 
railroad  I  had  been  following. 

Abilene  was  then  a  town  of  about  eight  thou- 
sand people;  and  a  real  good  town,  too.  I  had 
three  or  four  dollars  left  when  I  got  there  and 
my  first  move  was  to  inquire  whether  there  were 
any  veterinarians  in  practice  there.    At  a  drug 


90        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

store  I  was  informed  that  there  was  one  "hanging 
out"  at  Holme's  stable,  and  thither  I  went. 


Arriving  at  the  stable,  I  was  directed  to  a 
blacksmith  shop  in  the  rear;  there  I  found  my 
man.    He  was  under  a  horse,  tacking  on  a  shoe. 


A  REGULAR  TRAMP  EXISTENCE  91 

To  my  question  about  the  whereabouts  of  the  vet- 
erinary surgeon,  he  answered  that  he  was  the 
party.  He  was  very  glad  to  meet  me,  as  he  had 
often  heard  about  me,  he  said,  while  I  was  located 
in  El  Paso. 

He  stated  that  he  was  helping  out  the  black- 
smith, who  was  sick,  and  that  he  had  intended  to 
take  the  shop  off  his  hands  as  his  practice  was  not 
paying.  He  told  me  he  was  a  graduate  of  a 
Michigan  school.  I  knew  at  once  that  this  was 
not  true.  He  was  a  quack;  one  of  those  quacks 
who  imagine  themselves  at  the  head  of  the  veter- 
inary profession  and  constantly  rave  about 
quacks  and  quackery.  I  have  met  two  or  three 
of  this  kind,  and  they  are  usually  pretty  foxy 
fellows.  Just  the  same,  he  was  a  good  sort. 
When  I  told  him  I  might  stay  in  his  town  a  while 
he  became  interested.  He  suggested  that  we 
form  a  partnership  and  gather  up  some  "quick 
money,"  as  he  called  it.  He  said  there  were  lots 
of  cases  of  "heavy  surgery"  about  the  country, 
cases  which  he  had  not  had  the  time  to  fix  up. 

Well,  I  was  down  and  out;  and  as  I  had 
decided  to  remain  in  Abilene  a  while,  anyhow,  I 
thought  I  might  just  as  well  have  the  fellow  with 
me  as  against  me.  I  agreed  to  go  in  with  him; 
and  he  was  the  happiest  fellow  you  ever  saw.  We 
rented  an  office  before  night,  had  cards  printed 
and  began  business.  We  divided  everything 
equally  and  at  the  end  of  two  months  I  had  saved 
about  seventy-five  dollars  out  of  my  share. 

Those  two  months  were  the  most  interesting, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  most  care-free,  I  ever 


92        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

spent  in  my  life.  My  partner  was  a  most  inter- 
esting character,  and  between  him  and  the  people 
we  worked  for  I  had  a  real  circus. 

When  a  fellow  came  along  with  a  horse  to  be 
"worked  on,"  as  they  call  it  down  there,  my  part- 
ner always  took  him  in  hand  first.  When  he 
could  not  convince  the  fellow  that  his  horse 
needed  some  "heavy  surgery,"  to  cost  maybe 
twenty  dollars,  he  would  call  to  me,  "Here,  Doc; 
talk  scientific  to  this  fellow."  Then  I  would 
tackle  him ;  and  usually  we  landed  him. 

This  quack  was  a  remarkable  man  in  more 
ways  than  one.  Though  nearly  sixty  years  old, 
he  was  as  spry  as  I  at  that  time,  and  he  had  the 
record  of  being  a  real  terror  in  a  fight.  He  was  a 
"handy  guy"  at  any  fighting  game  and,  even  at 
his  age,  would  rather  fight  than  anything  else. 
When  dressed  up,  he  was  a  fine  looking  man.  He 
really  had  the  stuff  in  him  to  do  something  worth 
while.  At  the  forge  he  was  a  wonder.  I  have  in 
my  possession  today  a  molar  extractor  which  he 
forged  by  hand  in  the  blacksmith  shop,  and  it  is 
my  best  instrument.  But  the  discription  of  my 
practice  with  "Doc"  Asa,  for  that  was  his  name, 
is  worthy  of  a  chapter  in  itself. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


IN  THE     ABILENE     COUNTRY 

Whoa !    Hold  on  there  with  that  mule !    Ain't 
you  got  sense  enough  to  see  we're  doing  some 

heavy  surgery 
here  ?  Some 
of  you  gosh 
danged  farm- 
ers don't  know 
nothin'." 

This  out- 
burst of  right- 
eous  wrath 
came  from  my 
partner,  D  r. 
Asa,  and  the 
object  o  f  h  i  s 
wrath  was  a 
long,  gauky, 
cotton  farmer 
who  had  the  in- 
tention of  hav- 
ing a  "sween- 
eyed"  mule 
"worked  o  n," 
being  in  the  act 
of  leading  the 
mule  into  our 
unpretenti  o  u  s 
infirmary  when 
m  y     partner's 

93 


94        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

wrath  burst  out.  My  partner  called  the  infirm- 
ary the  infirmatory ;  he,  my  partner  I  mean,  had 
not  had  a  very  generous  education,  either  gen- 
eral or  veterinary;  so  please  be  easy  on  his  "tech- 
nical terms." 

When  Dr.  Asa  was  doing  "heavy"  surgery 
which  was  his  term  for  major  surgery,  he  would 
insult  his  best  friend  if  he  so  much  as  ventured  a 
suggestion  of  any  sort.  If  no  one  made  any  sort 
of  suggestions  bearing  on  the  operation  he  would 
invariably  vent  his  spleen  on  the  first  party  to 
intrude  on  the  field  of  maneuvering.  If  it  hap- 
pened to  be  a  long  horn  farmer,  or  a  "hill-billie," 
as  Dr.  Asa  called  them,  he  would  continue  his 
first  outburst  with  a  running  talk  somewhat  as 
follows : 

"Gosh  darned  funny  some  people  can't  learn 
nothin';  seems  to  me  everybody  ought  to  know 
that  by  their  gosh  darned  movin'  around  they  stir 
up  enough  micromes  to  put  the  tetanic  disease  in 
a  surgery  case.  Especially  these  gosh  darned 
rubes  with  their  heavy  walkin';  they  jar  the 
buildin'  enough  so  as  to  kill  any  surgery  case 
with  the  shock.  And  then  the  darn  fool  has  a 
notion  to  drag  a  mule  in  yit;  never  see  no  such 
gosh  darned  fools  as  growed  up  around  here." 
And  so  he  kept  on  until  something  else  switched 
his  wrath  onto  some  other  object  or  person. 

To  me  these  wrathful  broadsides  of  the  old 
quack  were  worth  a  circus;  I  was  only  a  few 
years  out  of  college  at  the  time  and  I  could 
always  get  a  good  "inside"  laugh  on  these  occa- 
sions. 


IN  THE  "ABILENE"  COUNTRY  95 

The  "heavy"  surgery  case  off  his  hands,  Dr. 
Asa  proceeded  to  "work  on"  the  sweeneyed  mule. 
But  not  before  an  argument  with  the  farmer  on 
the  name  "sweeney"  had  been  gone  through.  The 
farmer  wanted  to  know  why  the  condition  was 
called  sweeney.     Dr.  Asa  informed  him  that  it 
was  not  called  "sweeney"  where  he  came  from 
(Michigan)  ;  there  in  Michigan  they  called  it 
shoulder  aterphy,  he  said.    How  anybody  could 
call  the  condition  "sweeney"  was  more  than  he 
could    understand,    he    said;    why,    what    was 
"sweeney"  but  an  Irishman's  name  anyhow,  and 
couldn't   the   farmer   see  that   he   was   entirely 
wrong?     This  was  old  Dr.  Asa  every  time;  no 
matter  how  plain  the   case,   or  how  right  the 
farmer,  Dr.  Asa  always  attempted  to  show  him 
that  he  was  "way  off"  before  he  did  anything  for 
the  animal.    Sometimes  the  argument  got  so  hot 
that  the  owner  of  the  animal  left  in  disgust;  at 
other  times  Dr.  Asa  would  chase  him  away  for 
being  "too  smart."  "If  you  know  so  gosh  darned 
much  about  it,"  he  would  say,  "what  the  dickens 
you  coming  around  here  for  to  have  me  fix  your 
horse  up?" 

At  the  time  of  which  I  write  there  were  not 
over  twenty-five  graduate  veterinarians  in  prac- 
tice in  the  whole  state  of  Texas,  and  some  of  the 
"stunts"  enacted  in  the  name  of  veterinary 
science  were  well  worth  seeing. 

But  let  us  return  to  the  cotton- farmer  with  the 
"sweeneyed"  mule.  Dr.  Asa  apparently  con- 
vinced him  that  sweeney  was  a  name  to  be  men- 


96        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

tioned  only  in  the  dark,  and  that  a  rowel  must  be 
inserted  to  cure  the  "aterphy." 

When  the  seton  was  in  place  the  farmer  wanted 
to  know  how  much  his  bill  came  to.  "Five  dol- 
lars," said  Dr.  Asa. 

"Five  dollars!"  yelled  the  farmer.  "Smoking 
cat-fish,  five  dollars  for  a  little  job  like  that? 
Why,  man,  I  could  done  that  just  as  well  myself 
if  I  only  had  the  tools." 

"Look  a  here,  Mister,"  says  Dr.  Asa,  "Don't 
you  start  no  rough  talk  around  here,  'cause  I'm 
perfessional,  and  I  won't  stand  for  it.  My  part- 
ner here  (meaning  me)  is  a  scientific  graduate, 
and  he  can  tell  you  that  I  done  you  a  scientific 
piece  of  work.  Your  bill  is  five  dollars  and  you 
got  to  pay  it.  And  what's  more,  you  got  to  pay 
it  right  now" 

I  began  to  look  around  for  a  place  to  duck 
under ;  in  those  days,  in  that  country,  arguments 
of  that  sort  usually  were  dangerous  for  the  "inno- 
cent bystander." 

"I'll  be  hung  before  I  pay  you  five  dollars  for 
that  job,"  says  the  farmer.  'You  can  sue  me  for 
it,  and  see  if  you  get  it."  With  that  he  began 
to  walk  away  with  the  mule. 

"Hold  on  there,  you  skinner,"  yells  old  Doc 
Asa,  and  at  the  same  time  he  makes  a  jump  for 
the  mule's  head.  He  had  a  knife  in  his  hand  and 
I  feared  I  was  going  to  witness  a  cutting  match. 
But  I  was  wrong;  the  old  fellow's  program  was 
entirely  different.  With  a  quick  slash  he  had  cut 
through  the  seton  and  with  the  same  movement 
jerked  it  out. 


IN  THE  "ABILENE"  COUNTRY 


97 


"There,"  he  says,  "now  take  your  darned  mule 
away  from  here  before  I  start  something." 
The  farmer  lost  no  time  in  getting  away  with 


NO  ING  AWAY  * 


his  mule,  either.  Old  Dr.  Asa,  though  in  his 
fifties,  had  a  reputation  as  a  scrapper  in  any 
form,  shape  or  manner.     Knives,  guns,  fists  or 


98        THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

feet,  the  old  fellow  was  any  younger  man's  equal. 
It  has  always  been  a  wonder  to  me  that  he  could 
live  in  that  country  as  long  as  he  did.  He  had 
been  there  six  years  when  I  went  into  partner- 
ship with  him. 

****** 

I  had  been  with  Dr.  Asa  a  couple  of  weeks  and 
aside  from  a  few  little  "misunderstandings"  we 
were  getting  along  fine.  These  little  "misunder- 
standings" arose  from  the  fact  that  Asa  would 
never  make  a  call  alone ;  he  always  insisted  on  my 
accompanying  him.  I  tried  to  argue  with  him 
that  there  was  no  advantage  in  a  partnership 
conducted  on  those  lines,  because  the  two  of  us 
could  do  no  more  than  one  man  alone.  Nearly 
every  time  we  made  a  call  together  we  lost  money 
by  missing  a  job  or  two  that  came  to  the  office 
while  we  were  gone.  I  tried  to  show  him  that  if 
one  of  us  would  "hang  around"  the  office  we 
could  get  all  the  business.  But  he  would  not  see 
it  my  way.  The  only  reason  for  his  attitude  on 
this  point  that  I  could  ever  figure  out  was  that 
the  old  scoundrel  feared  I  might  "double-cross" 
him  in  some  way. 

We  kept  no  books  on  the  partnership  and 
"squared  up"  after  every  job  we  did,  each 
receiving  half  of  all  money  taken  in.  When  rent 
was  due,  or  a  drug  bill  had  to  be  paid,  each  of  us 
reached  in  our  pocket  for  half  the  amount. 

One  reason  for  this  way  of  keeping  our 
finances  straight  was  that  both  of  us  were  "hard 
up."  The  other  reason  was  that  we  did  not  trust 
each  other;  that's  a  fact.    Asa  feared  I  was  too 


IN  THE  "ABILENE"  COUNTRY  99 

smooth  for  him  because  I  was  a  college  graduate, 
and  I  feared  Asa  was  too  cunning  for  me  because 
he  was  a  foxy  old  quack. 

Anyhow,  Asa  kept  on  dragging  me  around  on 
his  calls,  and  after  a  time  he  got  so  that  he 
depended  on  me  a  great  deal.  He  got  so  that  he 
would  depend  on  me  to  carry  thermometers, 
trocars,  hypos  and  other  utilities;  he  knew  I 
usually  kept  these  in  my  pockets  and  he  soon 
acquired  the  habit  of  leaving  his  things  in  the 
office. 

When  we  arrived  on  the  scene  of  trouble  he 
would  say  to  me,  "Doc,  take  his  fever  with  that 
there  thermometry  of  yourn." 

When  he  had  diagnosed  the  case  and  received 
my  confirmation  of  the  findings  he  would  say, 
"Well,  Doc,  shoot  the  hypo  to  him;"  which  meant 
for  me  to  do  whatever  I  thought  ought  to  be 
done. 

One  night  after  I  had  gone  to  bed  a  call  came 
from  a  rancher  about  eight  miles  north  of  town. 
Dr.  Asa  wanted  me  to  accompany  him  on  the 
trip  as  usual,  but  I  played  sick  and  refused  to 
go.  He  stuck  around  for  at  least  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  trying  to  induce  me  to  go  with  him,  but  I 
remained  firm  and  refused  to  be  induced.  Fin- 
ally he  left,  and  I  went  back  to  sleep.  It  seemed 
to  me  that  I  had  been  sleeping  only  a  short  time 
when  I  was  awakened  by  Dr.  Asa  calling  my 
name.  When  I  looked  up  I  saw  him  feeling 
through  my  vest  pockets,  cussing  a  string  of 
cuss-words  the  while.  " You're  a  fine  graduate, 
you  are,"  he  yells  at  me,  "let  a  feller  drive  eight 


100      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

miles  to  a  colic  with  no  trocar.  And  when  I  gets 
there  the  gosh-darned  plug  is  bloated  like  a  circus 
balloon.  Had  she  been  a  cow  I  might  a  knived 
her,  but  you  know  we  can't  do  no  such  surgery 
on  the  equi  specials.  Come  on  out  of  that  there 
bed  now  and  go  along  back  with  me;  we  got  to 
hurry." 

Well,  I  looked  at  my  watch  and  saw  that  it 
would  soon  be  daylight  anyhow,  so  I  jumped 
into  my  clothes  and  rode  along  back  to  the  poor 
nag  waiting  to  be  stabbed  with  the  trocar,  eight 
miles  away. 

From  the  description  Dr.  Asa  gave  me  of  the 
case  as  it  was  when  he  left  it  I  judged  that  the 
rancher  would  probably  be  digging  the  grave 
when  we  arrived.  Dr.  Asa  did  not  think  so, 
because  he  had  given  the  horse  a  big  dose  of 
peppermint  and  belladonna,  his  favorite  colic 
cure;  he  was  sure  this  would  keep  him  going 
until  the  trocar  could  be  gotten. 

When  we  were  getting  close  to  the  ranch  house 
Asa  began  to  run  the  horse  he  was  driving  and 
we  flew  into  that  yard  like  a  Chicago  fire  depart- 
ment, taking  off  a  rod  or  two  of  poultry  wire 
from  the  hen  yard  before  Asa  got  the  control  of 
the  fifth  wheel  after  making  the  turn  into  the 
gate. 

I  could  see  no  one  anywhere  about  when  we 
made  our  flying  entrance  and  I  was  sure  the 
patient  had  died.  To  one  side  of  the  barn  there 
was  a  small  mesquite  grove  and  toward  this  grove 
Asa  now  steered  our  horse.   As  we  got  up  close 


IN  THE  "ABILENE"  COUNTRY  101 

I  saw  the  rancher  sitting  on  the  ground  and  the 
sick  horse  lay  a  few  yards  farther  in  the  grove. 

Jumping  out  of  the  buggy,  trocar  in  hand,  Asa 
yells  at  the  rancher,  "Didn't  I  tell  you  to  keep 
him  up  ?  What  in  blazes  you  want  to  let  him  lay 
around  like  that  for?"  The  rancher  answered 
not  a  word  but  he  appeared  to  be  very  much 
amused  about  something  or  other. 

When  Asa  got  close  to  the  patient  he  says: 
"There  now,  you  see,  you  went  and  let  him  die. 
I  told  you  to  keep  him  up.  But  we'll  tap  him 
anyhow."  With  that  he  shoved  the  instrument 
into  the  dead  horse's  flank  and  began  a  lecture  on 
the  operation  of  tapping.  When  no  more  gas 
came  through  the  canula  he  pulled  it  out  and  told 
the  rancher  he  owed  us  ten  dollars. 

I  began  to  move  over  to  the  place  where  our 
horse  was  tied  and  untied  him ;  I  feared  we  might 
have  to  make  a  fire-run  out  of  that  yard  and  I 
wanted  to  be  ready. 

But  in  a  few  minutes  Asa  and  the  rancher 
came  out  of  the  grove  and  Asa  handed  me  five 
silver  dollars,  my  share  of  the  fee. 

As  far  as  I  could  see  everybody  thought  every- 
thing was  O.  K. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

UNFAIR  COMPETITION 

One  day  as  I  was  returning  from  a  visit  to  a 
neighboring  town  my  partner,  Dr.  Asa,  met  me 
at  the  depot.  He  appeared  considerably  wrought 
up  about  something  and  the  way  he  welcomed  me 
back  would  have  given  one  the  impression  that  I 
had  been  away  for  several  months  instead  of  a 
day. 

"Gee  whiskers,  Doc,"  he  says,  "glad  you  came 
back  so  quick;  there  is  big  competition  in  town! 
A  guy  blowed  in  this  morning  and  he  is  throwing 
bills  around  which  says  he  is  here  to  stay.  We 
got  to  get  busy  an'  scare  him  out."  In  our  walk 
from  the  depot  to  the  office,  I  got  a  look  at  the 
"big  competition,"  and  the  description  suited  him 
all  right.  He  was  one  of  the  biggest  men  I  have 
ever  seen,  and  if  size  made  competition,  he  was 
the  whole  thing,  without  question.  I  tried  to 
calm  Dr.  Asa's  fears  by  various  remarks  about 
size  from  all  unfavorable  points  of  view  but  he 
would  not  be  calmed;  he  said  he  was  somewhat 
acquainted  with  the  big  fellow  and  knew  him  to 
be  the  most  unscrupulous  competitor  imaginable. 
Later  I  found  this  to  be  true,  and  in  all  my 
travels  I  met  only  one  quack  who  was  this  big 
fellow's  equal  in  all  the  tricks  of  quackery.  On 
this  occasion  he  began  his  campaign  with  an 
indirect  personal  attack  on  Dr.  Asa  by  passing 
out  cards  which  read: 

103 


104      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

Dr.  C.  W.  Neok 
Veterinary  Surgeon  and  Dentist. 

This  was  on  the  face  of  the  card;  on  the  back 
of  the  card  were  the  words : 

"Tell  the  truth  and  stay  sober; 
It  will  win!" 

This  was  the  "slam"  at  Asa,  who  violated  the 
above  named  virtues  with  considerable  regularity, 
and  his  weakness  for  drink  was  especially  well 
known. 

Now  began  a  campaign  of  price-cutting  and 
mud-slinging,  the  like  of  which  I  had  not  seen 
before  nor  have  I  seen  its  equal  since.  Den- 
tistry, which  was  regularly  done  at  three  dollars, 
was  shoved  down  to  one  dollar,  and  I  have  seen 
Dr.  Asa  float  a  mouth  for  fifty  cents  rather  than 
let  the  job  go  to  Neok.  It  got  so  that  the  farmers 
took  advantage  of  this  state  of  war  among  the 
veterinary  fraternity  and  they  would  "get  prices" 
from  each  of  us  before  they  hired  one  of  us.  It 
was  the  most  exciting  time  I  ever  went  through 
in  practice,  but  it  was  great  fun  for  a  youngster 
such  as  I  was  at  the  time. 

About  three  weeks  after  "the  big  competition" 
located,  things  were  getting  to  a  dangerous  pitch 
between  my  partner,  Dr.  Asa,  and  the  big  quack, 
Dr.  Neok.  They  did  not  confine  their  energies  to 
drawing  trade;  they  made  slanderous  remarks 
about  each  other  and  even  threatened  one  another 
with  physical  punishment. 

It  was  quite  a  difficult  matter  for  me  to  main- 
tain a  neutral  attitude  because  of  my  association 


UNFAIR  COMPETITION  105 

with  Dr.  Asa,  but  I  succeeded  in  keeping  out  of 
the  mix-up  so  far  as  real  action  went. 

Asa  now  absolutely  refused  to  go  on  a  call  by 
himself,  and  even  on  a  short  call  in  town  he  would 
take  me  along  with  him.  Neok  had  threatened 
bodily  violence  should  they  ever  meet  face  to  face, 
and  Asa  was  taking  no  chances.  In  that  country, 
in  those  days,  bodily  violence  meant  a  shooting 
affair,  and  I  did  not  relish  the  part  I  had  to  play. 
However,  I  could  not  very  well  forsake  my 
legitimate  partner  at  so  critical  a  time. 

The  office  which  we  occupied  at  that  time  was 
a  small,  wooden  affair,  probably  ten  by  twelve 
feet  floor  space  and  one  story  high.  On  top  of 
the  roof,  just  on  the  edge  of  front  peak,  Asa  had 
mounted  the  bleached  skull  of  a  horse,  with  an 
electric  light  globe  in  each  orbital  fossa.  At  night 
we  would  switch  on  these  lights;  it  made  some 
sign,  believe  me. 

Dr.  Asa  claimed  that  the  skull  was  that  of  a 
running  horse  by  the  name  of  Major  Dangerfield 
who  had  died  while  in  his  care.  Whenever  any- 
one remarked  about  the  peculiar  method  of 
advertising,  Asa  would  say,  "Yep ;  proud  to  say 
that's  old  Major  Dangerfleld's  cranium.  I  had 
to  do  some  heavy  surgery  on  him,  but  he  couldn't 
live." 

As  I  sat  in  the  office  one  night  reading,  I  was 
nearly  scared  out  of  my  wits  by  what  seemed  to 
be  a  loud  explosion  on  our  roof.  I  jumped  out 
through  the  front  door  and,  looking  up,  I  failed 
to  see  the  lights  in  the  eye-sockets  of  "Major 
Dangerfield's  cranium;"  neither  could  I  distin- 


106      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 


guish  the  skull  itself.  When  I  investigated  early 
the  next  morning,  I  found  that  only  a  few  pieces 
of  the  skull  remained  on  the  roof,  the  greater 


-AT-IH1MX-WL-W0ULD  SWITCH  ON  THESE  LIGHTS; 
IT  MADE^OriE  StGN?Bm£VC^ME=g>=^S 


portion  being  scattered  about  on  the  ground; 
near  the  edge  of  the  gable  the  shingles  had  been 
bored  through  by  a  high-power  rifle  ball.     Asa 


UNFAIR  COMPETITION  107 

blamed  Neok  for  this  trick,  without  hesitation. 
To  me  it  made  no  difference  who  had  done  the 
shooting;  it  was  getting  altogether  too  warlike 
for  my  comfort,  and  I  told  Asa  that  I  was  going 
to  leave  for  more  peaceful  fields.  He  begged  me 
to  remain;  he  even  cried,  but  I  went. 

The  finish  of  this  veterinary  war  in  Abilene  I 
can  only  tell  from  hearsay.  It  seems  that  after 
I  left  Neok  sent  for  reinforcements  in  the  form 
of  another  quack  by  the  name  of  Stables.  The 
two  of  them  finally  harassed  Asa  into  open  war- 
fare. For  a  number  of  days  Neok  and  Asa 
endeavored  to  ambush  one  another  with  sawed-off 
shotguns.  Some  friends  on  both  sides  were  suc- 
cessful in  preventing  bloodshed  by  negotiating  a 
meeting  between  Neok,  Stables  and  Asa,  at 
which  meeting  Asa  sold  his  practice  and  office  to 
Neok  for  the  sum  of  eighty-five  dollars. 

So  ended  Dr.  Asa's  career  as  a  veterinary 
practitioner  in  Texas. 

I  heard  of  many  instances  which  were  as  bad, 
if  not  worse,  as  the  competition  between  Asa  and 
Neok.  Texas  was  a  great  state  from  a  veteri- 
nary standpoint  in  those  days. 


CHAPTER  XV 

FAREWELL  TO  ABILENE 

Of  Abilene  and  the  country  around  it,  I  have 
many  pleasant  memories.  That  year,  when  I 
was  there,  the  prospects  for  a  cotton  crop  were 
exceptionally  good  and  the  farmers  were  spend- 
ing their  money  freely.  Abilene  had  outgrown 
the  cattle  business  and  cotton  was  king.  West  of 
Abilene  there  was  some  cotton,  but  more  cattle. 
A  few  years  later,  though,  I  saw  a  cotton  gin  at 
Monahans,  which  is  about  two  hundred  miles  west 
of  Abilene. 

At  the  time  of  which  I  write,  Texas  had  no 
laws  regulating  the  practice  of  veterinary  medi- 
cine and  surgery,  and  the  state  was  swarming 
with  quacks. 

When  I  recall  to  mind  some  of  the  work  I  have 
seen  done  in  the  name  of  veterinary  science,  I  can 
almost  bring  tears  to  my  eyes.  I  have  seen 
animals  submitted  to  the  most  cruel  tortures  by 
some  of  these  quacks  for  the  most  simple  and 
benign  conditions  or  diseases. 

The  greatest  harm,  however,  which  follows  on 
the  trail  of  one  of  these  defamers  of  a  worthy 
profession  is  the  seeds  of  ignorance  which  they 
sow  and  cultivate  among  farmers.  Besides  this 
they  are,  as  a  rule,  dishonest. 

I  have  personally  known  of  several  instances  in 
which  a  certain  quack  wilfully  infected  horses 
promiscuously  in  a  certain  small  town  by  smear- 

109 


110      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 


ing  water  troughs  and  hitching  posts  with  the 
nasal  discharges  from  cases  of  strangles.  Through 
their  ignorance,  I  have  known  two  quacks  to 


HAVE  PER50NALU 
IN5TANCES  IN  WHICH  A  CERTAIN  QUACK  WILEULLY 
INFECTED  HORSES  BY  SMEARING  WATER  TR0UGH5    §S§t 
WITH  DISCHARGES  FROM  CASES  OF  STRANGLES " 


''W- 


trephine  a  case  of  glanders,  thinking  it  a  catar- 
rhal condition,  and  thus  exposing  hundreds  of 
horses,  as  well  as  people,  to  infection. 


FAREWELL  TO  ABILENE  111 

Likewise,  I  have  known,  personally,  of  several 
cases  of  catarrh  of  the  facial  sinuses  produced  by 
a  decayed  tooth  in  which  a  quack  ordered  the 
horses  killed,  thinking  them  glandered.  I  know 
of  a  case  where  a  quack  was  called  to  assist  a 
mare  in  foaling.  After  he  arrived  and  examined 
the  mare  he  decided  that  he  could  not  get  the 
colt  away.  Instead  of  telling  the  farmer  that 
the  case  was  too  much  for  him  and  requesting  a 
consultation  or  other  veterinary  assistance,  he 
sent  the  farmer  into  the  house  after  some  soap; 
while  the  farmer  was  in  the  house  he  gave  the 
mare  a  large  dose  of  strychnine,  from  which  she 
died  within  an  hour.  I  know  of  cases,  to  which  I 
was  called  later,  which  in  the  start  were  simple 
conditions,  but  which  had  been  converted  into 
very  grave  affections  by  improper  treatment. 
Right  here,  where  I  am  practicing  today,  there 
are  quacks  who  treat  other  people's  animals  and 
charge  them  for  it,  but  when  their  own  animals 
or  some  of  their  relatives'  animals  get  sick  they 
call  me  in. 

One  thing  I  know,  and  that  is  this :  A  grad- 
uate, if  he  does  not  benefit  a  case,  will  certainly 
not  do  it  any  harm.  He  knows  his  anatomy  and 
physiology;  these  two  alone  will  keep  him  from 
harming  the  patient.  From  lack  of  anatomical 
knowledge  I  knew  a  quack  to  cut  out,  in  its 
entirety,  the  patella  of  a  horse,  presuming  thereby 
to  correct  a  claudication.  From  the  same  lack 
of  knowledge  I  knew  a  quack  to  tap  a  cow  for 
bloat,  through  the  lateral  processes  of  the  lumbar 
vertebrae. 


112      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

If  there  is  a  quack  in  practice  who,  when  he 
gets  a  case  which  he  cannot  diagnose,  will  frankly 
tell  the  owner  so,  I  have  not  yet  seen  or  heard  of 
him.  Every  one  of  them  whom  I  came  in  con- 
tact with  will  treat  any  case  you  bring  them,  and 
will  continue  to  treat  the  case  as  long  as  you 
allow  them  to  do  30,  or  until  the  patient  dies. 
Cases  which  get  well  under  their  treatment,  get 
well,  with  few  exceptions,  in  spite  of  their  treat- 
ment and  not  because  of  it. 

I  may  seem  a  trifle  too  severe  on  quacks  and 
quackery,  but  I  tell  you  that  half  the  quacks  in 
practice  today  should  be  in  jail.  The  other  half 
should  be  hung.  I  can  prove  it.  I  call  to 
mind  an  instance  which  gives  a  fair  illustration 
of  the  integrity  of  some  of  these  fellows.  On  a 
certain  day  a  cotton  farmer  brought  a  mule  to  a 
certain  quack  in  Abilene  for  the  purpose  of 
having  his  teeth  floated.  After  examining  the 
mouth  this  horse-doctor  gave  it  as  his  opinion 
that  the  teeth  were  not  much  out  of  order,  but 
that  he  would  float  them  anyhow,  and  then  give 
the  mule  a  pill.  He  thought  the  pill  would  do 
the  work  alone,  but  to  make  sure  he  would  float 
the  teeth  a  little. 

The  farmer  took  his  mule  home  after  this  had 
been  done,  and  as  he  did  not  seem  to  improve  a 
particle,  he  sent  the  mule  in  again  with  a  neigh- 
bor, a  week  later.  The  quack  having  forgotten 
what  he  told  the  farmer  the  first  time,  now  told 
his  neighbor  that  the  mule  had  the  worst  set  of 
teeth  he  ever  saw,  and  then  he  floated  them  again. 
When  the  neighbor  got  the  mule  home  and  told 


FAREWELL  TO  ABILENE  113 

the  owner  all  about  it,  he  got  mad  and  threat- 
ened to  shoot  the  first  horse-doctor  he  should 
ever  happen  to  see. 

He  cooled  down  in  a  few  days  and  brought 
the  mule  to  me.  One  of  the  upper  molars  had 
decayed  and  the  opposing  tooth  in  the  lower  jaw 
had  grown  until  it  was  about  an  inch  too  long. 
It  took  only  a  minute  to  cut  this  off  and  enable 
the  mule  to  eat  properly.  Now,  this  quack  had 
"fixed"  this  same  mouth  twice  within  a  week  and 
had  done  absolutely  nothing  toward  correcting 
the  condition.    Well,  this  will  do  for  the  quacks. 

Now,  let  me  see ;  where  was  I  ?  Oh,  yes ;  I  was 
in  the  act  of  leaving  my  quack  partner  at  Abi- 
lene. About  two  months  I  had  been  there.  I 
could  see  that  our  bubble  was  getting  ready  to 
burst;  we  had  to  charge  exorbitant  fees  to  make 
any  money,  and  we  were  being  shunned  by  the 
farmers.  They  were  almost  afraid  to  look  at  the 
sign  on  our  door  for  fear  we  might  charge  them 
for  the  looking.  Before  the  bottom  dropped  out 
from  under  us  I  packed  my  trunk  and  bade  my 
partner  farewell. 

I  had  about  seventy-five  dollars  saved  up,  and 
I  bought  a  ticket  right  through  to  El  Paso,  four 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  west. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

DR.  ASA  TURNS  UP 

I  buckled  right  down  to  business  in  El  Paso 
and  soon  had  things  going  nicely  when,  without  a 
word  of  notice,  Dr.  Asa  dropped  in  on  me  one 
day. 

He  said  he  was  on  his  way  to  California  and 
his  wife  and  his  two  children  accompanied  him. 
As  he  seemed  somewhat  poorly  rigged  out,  I 
asked  him  where  his  wife  and  the  youngsters 
were  staying,  upon  which  he  said  that  they  were 
comfortably  fixed  in  a  hotel.  He  did  not  know 
the  name  of  the  hotel  but  said  he  knew  where  it 
was  located  and  could  find  the  place  without 
trouble.  He  finally  admitted  that  he  had  only  a 
few  dollars  left  and  thought  he  would  stick 
around  a  few  days  and  make  enough  money  to 
pay  their  way  to  the  coast. 

While  I  was  somewhat  short  on  change 
myself,  I  wanted  to  help  him  all  I  could  and 
suggested  that  he  run  up  to  Las  Cruses,  New 
Mexico,  for  a  few  days.  Las  Cruses  was  a  fine 
little  town  in  the  Mesilla  valley  about  forty  miles 
from  El  Paso,  and  not  even  a  quack  there.  I 
knew  Asa  could  clean  up  a  nice  little  sum  of 
money  there  in  a  few  days  because  I  had  been 
called  there  frequently  and  knew  just  what  the 
possibilities  were  for  such  an  attempt  as  Asa 
would  make. 

He  agreed  at  once  that  it  was  exactly  the  sort 

115 


116      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

of  a  proposition  he  was  looking  for  and  he  could 
hardly  wait  for  the  train  to  start,  which  would 
be  at  seven  in  the  evening.     As  it  was  early  in 


WE   WALKECflFOR  OVER  AN  HOUR,FRON  ONE  HOTEL  TO 
ANOTHER,  BUT  WE  COULD  NOT  FIND-THE  RIGHT  ONE  " 


the  morning  when  we  mapped  out  this  program, 
he  decided  to  spend  the  day  seeing  the  sights,  and 
forth  he  went,  in  good  humor. 


DR.  ASA  TURNS  UP  117 

A  few  hours  later,  I  happened  on  him  a  few 
blocks  from  my  office  "gloriously  betanked;"  he 
could  barely  follow  the  sidewalk. 

"Hello  Doc,"  he  yelled  at  me;  "say,  this  is 
some  burg  all  right,  all  right.  Say,  Doc,  I'm 
going  to  stay  right  here;  put  up  a  big  inflrma- 
tory  here,  Doc;  be  rich  in  two  years.  Fine 
people;  got  the  money  too."  He  ran  off  a  couple 
of  yards  of  this  line  of  talk  and  I  had  some  dif- 
ficulty changing  the  subject. 

I  reminded  him  of  the  trip  to  Las  Cruces  and 
suggested  that  we  look  up  his  wife  and  kids. 
"By  George,"  he  says,  "that's  right,  Doc;  say,  I 
forgot  all  about  them."  He  was  sure  he  knew 
exactly  where  the  hotel  was  and  started  right  out 
to  go  there.  We  walked  for  over  an  hour,  from 
one  hotel  to  another,  but  we  could  not  find  the 
right  one.  Asa  would  stand  in  front  of  each 
place,  swaying  about  and  "sizing  it  up ;"  then  he 
would  look  in  the  door,  come  out  again,  "size" 
the  building  up  some  more,  and  then  he  would 
say,  "Nope;  that  ain't  quite  the  place.  Looks 
pretty  near  like  it  though."  Then  we  would 
go  on  to  the  next  one.  Finally  we  came  to  a 
boarding  house,  quite  a  piece  away  from  the 
downtown  hotels.  "Here  she  is,  Doc,"  Asa 
yelled;  "now  we  got  her.  I  told  you  I  knew 
where  it  was;  come  on  in." 

Arrived  inside,  we  found  the  wife  and 
"kiddos"  howling;  they  feared  Asa  had  gone  and 
left  them.  Also,  they  had  not  had  a  bite  to  eat 
since  the  supper  on  the  evening  before.  This 
"got  my  goat"  and  I  gave  him  the  benefit  of  a 


118      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

w 

piece  of  my  mind.  He  showed  fight,  and  I  had 
to  threaten  him  with  a  heavy  molar  cutter  which 
I  spied  in  an  open  suit  case  in  a  corner  of  the 
room. 

When  he  got  somewhat  more  tame  again,  he 
threw  himself  on  the  bed  and  fell  asleep.  After 
making  arrangements  for  something  to  eat  for 
the  madam  and  youngsters,  I  left,  with  instruc- 
tions to  the  madam  to  telephone  me  as  soon  as 
Asa  woke  up. 

As  I  received  no  message  by  two  in  the  after- 
noon I  thought  I  would  go  over  and  see  how 
things  were.  Asa  had  just  come  alive  when  I 
entered  and  he  was  the  sickest,  most  dejected 
man  I  ever  saw.  He  obeyed  my  every  com- 
mand, and  promised  to  stay  in  the  room  until  I 
should  call  for  him  in  time  for  the  train  to 
Las  Cruces.    And  he  did. 

We  left  on  the  Santa  Fe  that  evening,  having 
made  arrangements  for  Mrs.  Asa  and  the  chil- 
dren to  remain  at  the  boarding  house  in  El  Paso. 

We  arrived  at  Las  Cruces  about  nine  o'clock 
and  spent  an  hour  or  two  getting  "the  lay  of  the 
land"  before  we  went  to  bed. 

Arising  early  the  next  morning,  we  had  a  good 
breakfast  and  then  we  went  to  work.  The  fact 
that  I  was  acquainted  with  a  few  people  in  the 
town  made  it  easy  to  get  started.  By  noon  we 
had  about  a  hundred  dollars  worth  of  work  "in 
sight"  and  old  Dr.  Asa  felt  pretty  good  about  it. 
He  decided  that  Las  Cruces  just  about  suited 
him  and  that  he  would  locate  there  permanently ; 
I  was  to  return  to  El  Paso  and  ship  his  family  to 


DR.  ASA  TURNS  UP  119 

Las  Cruces  at  once.  I  was  only  too  glad  to  find 
him  so  easily  pleased  and  I  returned  to  El  Paso 
and  sent,  his  family  on  their  way  to  Las  Cruces. 

A  few  weeks  later  I  heard  he  was  in  jail  at 
Albuquerque,  New  Mexico.  He  had  only  been 
in  Las  Cruces  a  few  days  when  he  went  on 
another  "tear,"  spending  every  dollar  he  had 
earned.  To  go  the  limit  he  had  "soaked''  his 
instruments  to  a  liveryman  and,  then,  still  drunk, 
he  had  stolen  them  from  the  fellow  before  night. 

His  wife  and  the  children  "went  back  to  her 
folks." 

Later  I  heard  that  Asa  finally  reached  Cali- 
fornia. 


Note:  "Doc"  Asa  is  still  in  his  old  ways;  re- 
cently he  was  telling  a  friend  of  the  publisher 
that  on  his  return  from  California  to  Abilene  that 
they  met  him  with  four  brass  bands  and  that 
about  2000  people  marched  with  him  to  his  hotel. 
Quite  a  cordial  reception  for  old  "Doc." 


CHAPTER  XVII 

I  GET  THE  GOLD  FEVER 

I  worked  up  a  fair  practice  in  El  Paso ;  and  at 
the  end  of  three  years  I  went  away  and  left  it; 
left  it  to  go  on  a  gold  prospecting  trip  in  old 
Mexico.     It  happened  in  this  way: 

Shortly  after  I  had  again  located  in  El  Paso  I 
made  the  acquaintance  of  an  old  prospector  by 
the  name  of  Lister.  This  old  fellow  would  come 
down  to  my  office  nearly  every  night  and  sit 
around  smoking  his  pipe  and  telling  me  stories 
of  adventure  on  his  numerous  trips  on  the  hunt 
for  gold. 

Let  one  of  these  old-timers,  who  knows  how 
to  tell  what  he  has  gone  through,  talk  to  a  young 
fellow  who  has  the  fire  of  youth  in  his  blood;  I 
say,  let  such  an  old-timer  talk  to  a  live,  young 
fellow  night  after  night  for  several  months.  If 
you  can  keep  that  young  fellow  where  he  hap- 
pens to  be  located  at  the  time  you  can  class  your- 
self as  a  real  man-handler. 

The  case  is  even  worse  if,  like  this  old-timer 
told  me,  he  knows  where  there  are  some  excep- 
tionally rich  placer  grounds ;  grounds  where  a  few 
months'  work  will  make  you  independent;  if  he 
could  only  get  a  grub-stake.  I  listened  to  these 
talks  for  many  nights.  First  I  decided  to  put  up 
the  money  to  let  the  old  sodger  make  a  trip  down 
to  these  grounds.  They  were  supposed  to  be  in 
the  state  of  Sonora,  on  the  edge  of  the  Yaquin 

121 


122      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

country.  After  a  few  more  weeks  I  decided  to 
go  with  him  if  we  could  get  another  man  to  go 
with  us. 

Within  a  few  days  we  found  one  who  was  not 
only  willing  to  go,  but  was  looking  for  just  such 
an  opportunity.  He  and  I  put  up  two  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  for  our  outfit,  and  the  old  pros- 
pector was  to  take  us  to  the  place,  and  bring  us 
back.  We  left  El  Paso  on  September  twenty- 
eight  for  Casas  Grandes,  where  we  bought  jack 
mules  and  everything  we  were  told  to  buy.  After 
five  weeks  of  hard  knocks,  securing  only  a  good 
knowledge  of  how  to  pack  a  burro,  we  came 
back.  Our  man  could  not  find  the  place  he  had 
talked  so  much  about.  When  we  got  into  the 
mountains  he  knew  no  more  about  the  country 
than  we  did.  We  kept  pushing  on  over  range 
after  range  of  hills,  until  we  were  a  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  from  the  railroad;  and  then  we  came 
back. 

We  left  the  old  prospector  in  a  Mormon 
colony  on  top  of  the  continental  divide.  He 
swore  he  would  yet  find  the  place,  if  we  would 
have  patience. 

We  left  him  with  enough  grub  for  three  or 
four  weeks,  and  then  we  hiked  it  along  to  Casas 
Grandes.  There  we  sold  our  burros  and  trap- 
pings and  came  back  to  El  Paso,  nearly  broke 
again. 

Two  days  later  my  prospecting  partner  left 
for  California,  while  I  took  the  train  for  Abilene. 
I  never  saw  either  of  these  men  again;  nor  have 
I  heard  from  them.    About  two  weeks  later  the 


I  GET  THE  GOLD  FEVER  123 

Mexican  revolution  broke  out,  and  I  was  glad  we 
were  back  in  the  good  old  United  States  of 
America. 

I  remained  in  Abilene  only  a  few  days  and 
then  journeyed  on  to  Little  Rock,  Arkansas, 
once  more.  There  I  remained  about  two  weeks, 
including  four  or  five  days  I  spent  at  a  lumber 
camp  in  the  Fourche  Mountains  there.  I  made 
this  trip  to  the  lumber  camp  for  Doctor  Merch- 
ant, who  had  some  patients  there,  receiving  for 
it  five  dollars  per  day. 

When  I  returned  to  Little  Rock  from  this 
lumber  camp,  I  bought  a  ticket  to  Milwaukee, 
arriving  there  on  December  15,  1910,  after  an 
absence  of  just  about  five  years.  And  I  was 
broke  again! 

This  time  I  was  pretty  well  disgusted  with 
myself  and  my  condition.  Here  I  was,  a 
grown-up  man,  twenty-eight  years  old,  with  not 
a  dollar  of  my  own  nor  a  place  to  lay  my  head.  I 
had  made  a  failure  of  everything  so  far.  But 
just  the  same,  I  had  hopes;  I  never  gave  up.  I 
knew  that  I  could  make  good  anywhere,  if  I 
could  settle  down.  My  predicament  now  was 
that  I  had  quite  a  bit  of  settling  up  to  do,  also. 
And  then  I  found  out  that  while  a  young  lad  is 
given  every  opportunity  and  encouragement  to 
help  him,  when  a  fellow  gets  up  near  thirty  and 
cannot  show  anything  for  his  efforts,  people 
fight  shy  of  him ;  they  size  him  up  as  a  no-account. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


"pastures  new" 


A  brother  of  mine  was  practicing  veterinary 
medicine  and  surgery  in  the  Missouri  river 
country  in  South  Dakota.  He  had  written  to 
me  a  number  of  times  saying  that  his  state  had 
some  fine  openings  for  practitioners  and  that  he 
would  at  least  like  to  have  me  come  up  and  spend 
a  few  weeks  with  him. 

So  up  I  went. 

I  found  him  located  in  a  fine  little  town,  Cham- 
berlain; and  he  was  doing  well.  The  only 
trouble  he  had  was  a  mania  for  fishing  in  the 
Missouri  when  he  ought  to  be  cutting  out  shoe- 
boils  and  filing  teeth.  So  well  were  his  clients 
acquainted  with  his  weakness  for  this  pastime 
that  they  first  walked  down  to  the  river  when 
they  came  to  consult  him;  if  they  did  not  find 
him  there  they  knew  there  was  no  use  looking  in 
the  office  for  him,  because  he  was  either  out  of 
town  or  fishing. 

When  I  arrived,  he  had  a  number  of  odd  cases 
sticking  around  the  country  waiting  to  be  oper- 
ated upon  and  I  induced  him,  with  some  diffi- 
culty, to  give  the  fish  a  rest  until  we  could  clean 
up  some  of  this  work.  I  was  anxious  to  get  on 
some  of  the  Dakota  farms  and  ranches ;  I  wanted 
to  handle  some  of  their  stock  and  their  diseases, 
for  the  purpose  of  comparing  them  with  methods 
and  conditions  in  Texas  and  the  Southwest. 

125 


126      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

We  drove  about  the  country  for  several  days 
treating  various  chronic  maladies  and  doing  a  lot 
of  dentistry.  I  found  that  the  fees  there  were 
fully  as  high  as  in  Texas,  but  that  the  horses 
were  harder  to  handle;  they  had  more  life  than 
the  "dunghills"  we  treated  in  the  Southwest.  We 
had  to  cast  some  patients  for  simple  operations, 
which  we  invariably  could  perform  with  the  horse 
in  the  standing  position  down  in  the  Texas 
country. 

One  day  as  we  were  driving  near  the  village 
of  White  Lake,  about  35  miles  east  of  Chamber- 
lain, we  came  to  a  fine  looking  farm.  My  brother 
informed  me  that  the  owner  was  a  cranky  old 
German  and  that  he  had  had  some  disagreement 
with  him  on  account  of  a  prescription.  Never- 
theless, he  said  he  knew  the  old  fellow  had  sev- 
eral animals  requiring  veterinary  attention  and 
he  suggested  that  we  drive  in  to  see  him.  While 
my  brother  doubted  whether  the  old  fellow 
would  allow  him  to  treat  any  of  the  animals  he 
thought  that  I  might  be  able  to  do  something. 
It  was  none  of  my  trouble,  I  thought,  and  so  we 
drove  into  the  yard. 

A  boy  came  out  of  the  house,  and  my  brother 
asked  him  to  please  tell  his  father  to  come  out. 

When  the  old  man  saw  who  it  was  that  wanted 
to  speak  with  him  he  bristled  up  immediately, 
saying,  "No,  no,  I  got  no  sick  stock."  My 
brother  ignored  this  and  told  him  he  wanted  to 
introduce  me,  his  brother  from  Texas  and  also  a 
veterinarian.  "Oh,  so  is  dat,"  says  the  old 
codger.    "Oh,  hu,  hu;  two  in  vun  fambly!    Veil, 


"PASTURES  NEW"  127 

I  tell  you,"  addressing  me  now,  "your  brudder 
here  he  nearly  done  me  someding.  I  had  here  a 
sick  colt,  und  he  given  me  a  scription  for  him.  I 
tooken  the  scription  to  the  druggist  store  und 
dey  told  me  dere  vas  enough  arsenic  in  that 
scription  to  kill  all  the  horses  in  South  Dakota. 
Now,  vat  is  dot  for  a  business  from  a  man  vot 
claims  he  is  a  vertnery?  It  vas  nice  yet  of  the 
druggist  store  to  told  me  in  time."  Here  my 
brother  tried  to  explain  to  him  that  he  had 
merely  prescribed  tablespoonful  doses  of  Fow- 
ler's solution  of  arsenic,  which  would  give  the 
colt  not  quite  three  grains  at  a  dose,  and  as  the 
colt  was  a  big,  husky  three-year-old,  the  dose 
was  more  than  safe. 

"Veil,"  the  old  fellow  says,  "maybe  you 
vanted  to  make  it  like  dat ;  but  the  vay  the  feller 
in  the  druggist  store  told  me  if  I  give  one  dose 
my  colt  is  a  gone  goose.  No,  no,  ve  can't  do 
such  tings." 

I  took  him  in  hand  then  and  knocked  the  drug- 
gist into  a  cocked  hat  by  telling  him  a  few  of  my 
own  experiences.  When  I  got  through  talking 
to  him  he  felt  like  killing  the  fatted  calf  for  us 
and  he  wanted  to  know  whether  I  was  prepared 
to  do  some  work.  Well,  I  told  him,  of  course,  I 
was  only  out  here  on  a  vacation  and  so  on,  but  if 
he  had  some  work  he  wanted  done  up  in  first- 
class  shape,  why,  I  could  change  my  program. 

"All  right,"  he  says,  "come  in  the  barn;  I 
show  you  someding  right  avay." 

We  left  him  after  a  couple  of  hours  with  a 
nice  roll  of  his  coin  in  our  pockets.     I  charged 


128      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

him  so  much  that  I  surely  thought  he  would 
squeal;  but  he  paid  us  with  a  smile  and  said  he 
hoped  we  would  both  stay  in  that  country.  A 
whole  year  later  I  came  through  that  part  of  the 
country  again  and  he  was  friendly  yet;  every- 
thing we  did  for  him  on  that  first  meeting  came 
out  fine. 

4i&  3&  3&  3fe  3&  & 

One  day,  when  I  had  been  in  South  Dakota 
two  or  three  weeks,  a  client  of  mv  brother  re- 
quested  him  to  make  a  visit  to  his  ranch  forty- 
five  miles  north  of  town.  He  said  he  had  a 
young  horse  on  this  ranch  that  had  a  swelling 
under  one  eye  and  a  discharge  from  the  nostril 
on  the  same  side.  He  stated  that  he  had  not 
seen  the  horse  for  three  or  four  months,  but  the 
last  time  he  saw  him,  he  said,  he  seemed  to  be  in 
a  serious  condition  and  he  thought  he  would  have 
us  treat  him.  The  reason  that  he  had  not  seen 
the  animal  for  such  a  long  time  was  that  he  lived 
in  town,  and  only  visited  the  ranch  a  few  times 
each  year. 

As  he  owned  a  car  he  offered  to  take  us  to  the 
ranch  and  bring  us  back  to  town  the  same  day. 
He  did  not  inquire  what  our  charge  would  be 
for  the  trip,  and  as  he  was  quite  wealthy,  we 
presumed  that  he  would  be  prepared  to  pay  what 
was  right. 

We  started  out  early  in  the  morning  and 
arrived  at  the  ranch  about  noon.  The  greater 
portion  of  the  time  was  spent  in  crossing  the 
Missouri  river  in  a  rowboat  and  walking  from 
the  west  shore  to  the  ranch,  a  distance  of  a  mile 


"PASTURES  NEW"  129 

and  a  half,  the  car  being  left  in  the  care  of  some 
boys  on  the  east  side  of  the  river. 

When  we  arrived  at  the  place  and  got  a  look 
at  the  horse  we  found  him  as  sound  as  a  dollar. 
Every  trace  of  the  condition  which  had  troubled 
him  had  disappeared.  Besides,  there  was  not 
another  animal  on  the  place  in  need  of  veteri- 
nary services;  the  superintendent  tried  hard  to 
give  us  something  to  do,  but  he  could  not  find  a 
mouth  to  fix.     So,  back  to  town  we  went. 

As  the  ranch  owner  deposited  us  in  front  of 
our  hotel  he  remarked  to  mv  brother  that  we 
might  present  our  bill  any  time  we  cared  to  do 
so.  After  a  consultation  with  me  my  brother 
decided  that,  as  the  customary  fee  for  such  trips 
was  at  the  rate  of  a  dollar  per  mile,  forty  dollars 
would  be  reasonable;  this  was  an  allowance  of 
five  dollars  for  the  use  of  the  rancher's  car. 

The  next  day  we  presented  the  bill;  but  we 
didn't  get  the  money.  The  fellow  made  "such  a 
holler"  that  we  felt  like  we  had  committed  a  mur- 
der; we  reallv  did  feel  that  way  anyhow.  Fin- 
ally,  we  made  a  satisfactory  adjustment  by 
cutting  the  bill  in  two,  drawing  twenty  dollars 
from  him.  This  was  even  more  than  the  trip  was 
worth,  and  I  feel  like  a  robber  to  this  day  on  that 
score.  It  was  really  nothing  more  than  a  pleas- 
ure trip  for  my  brother  and  me,  and  we  must  have 
been  hard-hearted  scoundrels  in  those  days  to 
make  a  charge  of  this  kind. 

Strange  to  say,  the  fellow  remained  friendly 
towards  us  even  after  this  hold-up  game.  He 
must  have  been  a  big-hearted  fellow,  truly. 


130      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

One  of  the  most  common  diseases  which  I 
encountered  while  in  South  Dakota  with  my 
brother  was  actinomycosis.  In  the  region  where 
my  brother  was  located  the  disease  seemed  to  be 
present  in  some  form  on  almost  every  farm. 

The  form  known  as  "lumpy  jaw"  was  the  most 
common,  but  it  seemed  to  be  present  always  in  a 
mild  form  and  was  very  amenable  to  ordinary 
treatment.  Nearly  all  the  cattle  affected  were 
young  cattle. 

Conditions  simulating  cancerous  processes  are 
also  seen  quite  frequently  there. 

My  brother  and  I  term  South  Dakota  the  "fly 
state ;"  and  it  is  a  good  name  for  it. 

There  seem  to  be  more  flies  in  South  Dakota 
than  anything  else.  I  have  gone  into  restaurants 
in  South  Dakota  and,  after  having  a  nice  dinner 
served,  walked  out  and  left  most  of  it  untouched 
because  the  flies  bothered  me  so  that  I  couldn't 
eat. 

In  all  my  travels  I  never  encountered  so  many 
flies  as  there  were  in  South  Dakota.  I  have 
mentioned  this  to  other  travelers  and  they  have 
had  the  same  experience. 

A  few  counties  near  the  Missouri  river  have 
had  a  good  taste  of  the  ravages  of  hog  cholera, 
but  there  did  not  seem  to  be  any  good  estimate 
of  the  importance  of  stamping  out  the  disease. 
Instead  of  disposing  of  carcasses  so  as  to  prevent 
the  propagation  of  the  scourge,  most  of  the 
farmers  took  no  such  steps  at  all ;  they  seemed  to 
look  upon  the  loss  of  forty  or  fifty  hogs  from 
cholera  as  a  matter  of  fact,  as  something  which 


"PASTURES  NEW"  131 

belonged  to  the  hog  industry  and  had  to  be 
endured. 

Probably  one  reason  for  this  was  the  scarcity 
of  graduate  veterinary  practitioners.  This 
makes  the  employment  of  veterinary  services  an 
expensive  matter  and  both  the  hogs  and  the 
farmers  suffer  in  consequence  thereof. 

I  spoke  to  one  farmer  about  this  when  he  was 
telling  me  of  the  loss  of  sixty  hogs  from  cholera. 
I  asked  him  why  he  didn't  get  a  veterinarian  to 
treat  his  hogs  with  serum.  He  said  he  would  if 
there  were  any  veterinarians  close  enough  to 
make  it  a  reasonable  proposition.  The  nearest 
practitioner  to  his  farm  was  about  forty  miles 
away;  he  was  usually  too  busy  to  attend  to  calls 
at  such  a  distance,  and  even  if  he  could  be 
induced  to  come,  his  charge  for  one  trip  would 
cost  as  much  as  two  or  three  hogs. 

The  country  in  this  region  is  just  on  the  line 
between  a  farming  country  and  a  ranching 
country;  a  veterinarian  there  must  have  an 
immense  area  to  work  over  in  order  to  be  able  to 
exist  and  it  will  be  many  years  until  the  country 
can  support  more  practitioners  there. 

There  are  many  towns  in  which  there  are 
apparently  good  openings  for  a  veterinarian; 
when  one  comes  to  look  the  field  over,  however, 
he  usually  finds  that  if  he  could  get  all  the  work 
for  twenty  miles  in  every  direction  he  would  be 
barely  able  to  make  ends  meet  on  expenses. 

As  is  usually  the  case  where  the  farmers  have 
not  come  in  contact  very  much  with  graduate 
veterinarians,   so  it  is   there  also,  namely,  the 


132      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

request  for  a  guarantee  on  what  you  do  for 
them. 

After  you  have  examined  a  case  of  lameness 
and  decided  that  the  cause  is  a  ringbone  or  a 
spavin  that  must  be  fired  and  you  tell  the  farmer 
the  fee  will  be  ten  dollars,  he  usually  says,  "Well, 
I  will  give  you  ten  dollars  for  the  job  if  you  will 
guarantee  it."  And  to  some  of  them  you  can 
talk  for  an  hour,  using  up  your  best  arguments 
on  the  point,  but  you  won't  get  the  job  except 
"no  cure  no  pay"  fashion.  This  state  of  affairs 
is  the  direct  result  of  quackery  and  the  farmer 
must  not  be  blamed  for  it  entirely. 

A  veterinarian  in  such  localities  must  combine 
the  selling  qualities  of  a  sewing  machine  agent 
with  his  professional  ability  as  a  practitioner  if 
he  expects  to  do  any  business;  and  it  is  mighty 
discouraging  work  until  you  get  a  good  start.  I 
know  what  it  is  from  personal  experience.  One 
or  two  jobs  of  "hard  luck"  in  such  localities 
"cooks  your  goose;"  you  might  just  as  well  begin 
to  look  around  for  a  new  location  at  once  then. 

In  such  localities  as  these  the  young  practi- 
tioner must  resort  to  his  knowledge  of  "handling 
trade"  in  the  beginning  more  than  to  his  ability 
as  a  practitioner.  Until  he  has  made  a  name  for 
himself  Jie  will  get  no  credit  for  being  ever  so 
conscientious  or  painstaking.  Although  he  may 
spend  half  an  hour  carefully  examining  a  case 
and  using  every  known  scientific  means  to  arrive 
at  a  diagnosis,  he  won't  get  the  credit  for  it  that 
"old  Doc  so  and  so"  gets  who  drives  into  the  yard 
and  "can  see  what  is  the  matter  before  he  gets 


"PASTURES  NEW"  133 

out  of  his  buggy."  If  the  young  graduate  hap- 
pens to  have  "good  luck"  and  succeeds  in  saving 
a  few  grave  cases  right  from  the  jump,  his  suc- 
cess is  assured;  just  as  they  are  slow  in  acclaim- 
ing a  new  beginner's  work  in  these  localities,  just 
so  ready  are  they  to  proclaim  him  a  wonder  once 
he  demonstrates  that  he  is  worth  anything.  And 
if  he  treats  them  half  "white"  they  will  stick  to 
him  against  all  comers,  too,  ever  after. 

Many  a  worthy  young  graduate  has  gone 
down  to  defeat  in  such  localities  before  some 
ignorant,  crooked  old  quack;  not  because  the 
young  fellow  couldn't  deliver  the  goods,  but 
because  he  relied  solely  on  his  ability  as  a  vet- 
erinarian and  ignored  the  art  of  "handling 
trade." 

I  have  known  of  places  in  such  localities  where 
an  old  quack  would  successfully  hold  out  against 
graduate  after  graduate;  every  little  while  one 
would  quit  and  a  new  one  come  in  again.  The 
old  quack  eventually  got  the  name  of  being  a 
wonderful  doctor  who  was  "too  much"  for  all 
the  graduates ;  five  or  six  had  tried  it  against  him 
but  he  "drove  'em  all  out." 

The  next  year  you  come  through  that  town 
again  and  you  find  that  another  young  grad- 
uate has  located  there  and  he  is  doing  a  "land- 
office"  business,  "going  day  and  night"  as  they 
say.  You  ask  for  the  old  quack  and  are 
informed  that  he  spends  most  of  his  time  cussing 
the  young  fellow  who  was  "too  much"  for  him. 

Now,  usually,  this  young  fellow  who  is  "too 
much"  for  the  quack  is  no  better  practitioner 


134.      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

than  the  five  or  six  who  were  there  before  him; 
maybe  not  so  good,  because  some  of  the  five  or 
six  whom  the  quack  bluffed  out  are  making  a 
mark  for  themselves  in  localities  where  nothing 
but  real  ability  counts. 

But  this  particular  young  fellow  was  not  only 
the  quack's  master  in  veterinary  science,  but  he 
also  had  him  bested  in  the  art  of  "handling 
trade;"  and  in  two  or  three  years  the  quack  was 
a  dead  letter  in  veterinary  matters  in  the  region. 

These  things  occur  not  only  in  South  Dakota, 
but  in  all  states  where  the  graduate  veterinarians 
are  now  doing  pioneer  work. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

IDAHO 

The  year  I  went  to  South  Dakota  for  the 
first  time  to  visit  my  brother  proved  to  be  an 
"off  year"  in  crops.  Small  grain  was  very  poor 
and  west  of  the  Missouri  river,  conditions  were 
even  worse. 

I  saw  train  after  train  of  settlers  driving  across 
the  prairie,  leaving  their  claims  and  going  back 
east.  It  looked  like  a  bad  year  all  around  and 
my  brother  decided  to  quit  Chamberlain  and  look 
for  a  new  location. 

Both  my  brother  and  I  had  often  talked  about 
taking  a  trip  into  the  northwestern  part  of  the 
United  States,  and  we  decided  now  to  tramp 
through  as  veterinarians. 

We  wanted  most  particularly  to  see  the  state 
of  Idaho  and  that  was  our  ultimate  goal.  While 
we  wound  up  in  Idaho  all  right,  we  changed  our 
program  to  a  certain  extent,  in  so  far  as  we  did 
no  veterinary  work  until  we  ran  out  of  cash  and 
had  to  work  in  order  to  be  able  to  eat. 

We  left  Chamberlain,  S.  D.,  on  the  one  train 
which  ran  daily  to  Rapid  City,  arriving  there  the 
next  morning.  Rapid  City  we  found  to  be  a  fine 
little  town  and  the  country  around  it  looked 
prosperous  in  comparison  to  the  "Bad  Lands" 
that  one  sees  before  reaching  there. 

From  Rapid  City  we  went  to  Edgemont,  over 
a  jerk- water  road  that  runs  through  the  Black 

135 


136      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 


Hills  to  a  place  called  Mystic,  and  then  over  the 
Burlington  road. 

The  mountain  scenery  along  that  little  jerk- 


MAKING  OUR  FIRST 


water  road  from  Rapid  City  to  Mystic  is  the 
finest  to  be  seen  in  this  country.    I  have  crossed 


IDAHO  137 

the  Rockies  in  several  places,  have  been  in  the 
Sierra  Madres  in  Mexico  and  the  Sierra  Nevadas 
in  this  country,  and  none  have  any  grander  sights 
than  can  be  seen  along  this  little  railroad  through 
the  Black  Hills.  My  brother  has  the  same  opin- 
ion, and  he  has  traveled  even  more  than  I  have. 

From  Edgemont  we  went  direct  to  Billings, 
Mont.,  then  to  Butte,  and  from  Butte  into  Idaho, 
making  our  first  stop  at  Idaho  Falls. 

While  our  cash  was  not  yet  all  gone  it  was 
getting  low,  and  we  were  beginning  to  think 
about  doing  a  little  dentistry  or  something.  We 
had  already  covered  around  two  thousand  miles 
since  leaving  Chamberlain  and  had  paid  first- 
class  fare  for  every  mile,  to  say  nothing  of  eating 
expenses  and  other  items.  Besides,  we  had 
stopped  for  a  little  recreation  in  Rapid  City  and 
in  Butte  and  that  cost  something  too. 

We  got  into  Idaho  Falls  at  2  o'clock  in  the 
morning  and  left  before  noon  the  same  day.  We 
discovered  that  there  was  a  graduate  practicing 
there  and  we  did  nothing  further  than  to  visit 
with  him  a  few  hours. 

Our  next  stop  was  McCammon,  where  we 
floated  a  few  mouths  an  hour  or  so  after  we 
landed. 

We  had  an  interesting  experience  on  getting 
off  the  train  at  McCammon.  We  carried  a  large 
grip  full  of  dental  instruments,  two  surgical  kits, 
and  a  couple  of  "Nancy  Hanks"  medicine  cases. 
When  we  walked  away  from  the  depot  towards 
the  town,  we  noticed  a  man  following  us;  when 
we  got  to  the  main   section   of  the  burg,   we 


138      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

deposited  our  grips  on  the  sidewalk  and  held  a 
meeting  on  the  state  of  our  finances.  While  we 
were  counting  our  change,  this  man  who  had 
been  following  us  walked  up  to  us  and  said, 
"You  fellers  will  have  to  pay  a  license  in  this 
town." 

"By  George,"  says  my  brother,  "this  state 
must  have  some  State  Board  of  Veterinary 
Examiners ;  they  tackle  the  vets  the  minute  they 
get  off  the  train." 

When  we  asked  the  fellow  how  much  the 
license  fee  was,  he  asked,  "What  do  you  peddle?" 

Then  we  discovered  that  he  had  taken  us  for  a 
couple  of  peddlers  and  wanted  to  collect  a  ped- 
dler's license  from  us.  When  explanations  had 
been  made  we  had  a  good  laugh  all  around. 
(That  was  the  best  we  could  have;  the  burg  is 
dry.) 

We  remained  in  McCammon  that  day  and 
until  evening  of  the  next  day,  "fixing  a  few 
mouths"  and  writing  a  few  prescriptions  for  vari- 
ous disorders. 

There  was  not  much  work  "in  sight,"  and  so 
we  left  for  the  next  town  south  on  the  Oregon 
Short  line. 

Our  finances  were  now  in  a  very  bad  way,  and 
we  just  had  to  do  some  work.  The  next  town 
south  for  which  we  were  now  heading  was  a  very 
small  place  of  not  more  than  one  hundred  and 
fifty  people,  and  we  probably  would  not  have 
stopped  off  there  at  all  except  for  the  fact  that 
we  had  been  informed  that  a  short  distance  from 
there  a  large  dam  was  under  construction  for 


IDAHO  139 

irrigation  purposes.  The  builders  of  this  dam 
employed  around  three  hundred  horses  and 
mules,  and  we  thought  we  might  find  a  lot  of 
work  to  do  among  them. 

When  we  got  off  the  train  we  walked  to  the 
end  of  the  one  street  in  the  town  and  sat  down  on 
the  stoop  in  front  of  a  hardware  store.  We  took 
an  inventory  of  our  cash  and  there  were  just  two 
dollars  and  ninety-five  cents  all  told.  We  were 
now  about  three  thousand  miles  from  home, 
among  total  strangers,  and  a  rather  dubious  out- 
look for  improvement.  We  were  in  a  deuce  of  a 
hole ;  if  we  were  not  successful  in  landing  a  good 
bit  of  work  at  the  dam,  we  would  most  surely 
have  to  ride  out  of  town  on  the  bumpers  or  walk. 
The  town  was  too  small,  we  thought,  to  keep  one 
veterinarian  in  cigar  money,  let  alone  support 
two  in  grub. 

It  was  about  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon 
when  we  got  through  counting  our  cash,  and  in 
view  of  the  standing  of  our  money  bag,  we 
decided  to  make  an  attempt  to  get  out  to  the 
dam-site  at  once. 

I  walked  over  to  the  livery  stable  and  asked 
how  far  it  was  to  the  place,  and  was  told  it  was  a 
good  fifteen  miles  out  and  that  the  charge  for 
hauling  us  out  there  would  be  three  dollars. 
Here  was  some  regular  tough  luck!  Fifteen 
miles  to  the  dam ;  we  had  been  told  it  was  two  or 
three  miles  from  town.  And  three  dollars  for  a 
livery  rig  to  the  place ;  and  we  had  only  $2.95 ! 

I  went  back  to  the  hardware  store  where  my 
brother  was  sitting  on  the  stoop  waiting  for  me, 


140      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

and  asked  him  to  search  his  pockets  once  more  to 
see  if  he  couldn't  locate  another  nickel. 


"Ain't  no  use,"  he  says  to  me;  "and  besides 
we're  a  dime  shy  now;  I  went  and  bought  a 


IDAHO  141 

nickel's  worth  of  plug  while  you  were  down  to 
the  stable." 

For  this  I  had  to  give  him  "a  calling  down," 
because  we  had  agreed  to  cut  out  all  smoking  and 
chewing  until  we  got  hold  of  some  more  money. 
We  were  both  inveterate  users  of  plug  tobacco, 
but  I  could  quit  when  I  had  to,  while  my  brother 
couldn't.  To  square  himself,  he  gave  me  half  of 
the  plug  he  bought,  and  then  we  both  sat  down 
to  ruminate  over  our  situation. 

Just  when  we  had  about  found  a  solution  to 
our  predicament,  the  hardware  man  came  out 
and  chased  us  off  the  stoop  for  spitting  tobacco 
juice  all  over  it.  "What  do  you  think  this  is;  a 
cow  stable?"  he  asked  us. 

We  sat  down  on  some  farm  implements  that 
were  piled  to  one  side  of  the  stoop,  and  my 
brother  said  to  me,  "Hell  of  a  guy;  won't  even 
let  a  feller  spit.  Let's  walk  out  of  their  darn  old 
town;  its  only  twelve  miles  to  the  next  burg." 

"Not  me,"  says  I,  "I'm  going  to  ride  out  of 
this  place  first-class  if  I  have  to  swipe  a  dog  to 
do  it." 

And  for  a  while  we  sat  there,  trying  to  think 
up  some  scheme,  anything  to  get  out  of  town 
gracefully. 

I  began  to  walk  around  a  bit,  and  as  I  passed 
a  store  I  heard  a  man  talking  about  a  wagon 
having  come  in  town  for  provisions  for  the  crew 
at  the  dam.  I  located  the  wagon,  and  when  the 
driver  came  out  of  the  place  I  asked  him  whether 
he  thought  a  good  veterinary  surgeon  could  get 
anything  to  do  at  the  dam.     He  said  he  didn't 


142      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

know,  but  if  I  would  go  over  to  the  town  restau- 
rant I  would  find  one  of  the  bosses,  who  was  eat- 
ing there  and  who  could  give  me  the  information 
I  wanted.  This  looked  like  genuine  good  luck 
for  us  after  all,  and  I  immediately  went  in  search 
of  the  boss,  finding  him  in  the  restaurant,  just  as 
the  driver  of  the  wagon  had  described  him.  He 
was  a  good-natured  looking  chap,  and  I  did  not 
hesitate  to  approach.  I  told  him  who  and  what 
I  was  and  suggested  that  possibly  some  of  the 
horses  at  the  dam  might  require  veterinary  atten- 
tion. "Well,  I'll  tell  you,"  he  said,  "I  don't 
think  we  can  use  you ;  we  had  all  their  teeth  fixed 
about  a  month  ago,  and  I  don't  know  of  a  single 
horse  out  there  requiring  anything  in  your  line." 

All  my  hopes  smashed  to  smithereens! 

Here  we  had  steered  for  this  one-man  town 
solely  because  we  figured  on  getting  a  bunch  of 
work  out  of  those  three  hundred  horses  at  the 
dam-site;  and  now  we  find  that  every  one  of 
them  is  sound  as  a  dollar! 

I  walked  back  to  where  my  brother  was  wait- 
ing for  me  and  broke  the  sad  news  to  him  gently. 

While  we  stood  there  bemoaning  our  hard  luck, 
a  team  of  mules  was  driven  up  to  the  little  drug- 
store across  the  street  from  where  we  stood.  One 
of  the  mules  looked  very  thin  and  in  extremely 
poor  condition;  the  man  driving  them  tied  them 
to  a  post  and  went  into  the  drug  store. 

My  brother,  who  is  good  at  "getting 
acquainted"  followed  him  into  the  drug  store. 
He  told  the  druggist  he  was  a  veterinarian,  that 
he  intended  to  remain  in  town  a  few  days  and 


IDAHO  143 

that  he  would  consider  it  a  favor  if  the  druggist 
would  allow  him  to  make  his  headquarters  in  his 
store. 

The  druggist,  of  course,  immediately  had 
visions  of  stacks  of  money  coming  in  from  large 
veterinary  prescriptions  and  welcomed  my 
brother  with  open  arms.  "Sure,"  he  said,  "make 
this  your  hangout.  I  will  do  all  I  can  for  you." 
The  man  who  had  driven  the  team  of  mules  up  to 
the  store  stood  by  listening,  and  the  druggist  lost 
no  time  in  introducing  my  brother  to  him. 

My  brother  remarked  about  the  poor  condition 
of  one  of  the  mules  and  suggested  that  possibly 
he  had  "a  bad  mouth."  The  man  said  he  was 
sure  there  was  something  wrong  with  him  because 
he  got  as  much  feed  as  the  other  mule  and  yet  he 
would  not  pick  up.  My  brother  suggested  that 
an  examination  be  made  and  the  fellow  agreed; 
in  fact,  he  said  he  was  very  glad  that  he  had  met  a 
"veterinary"  who  could  do  something  for  the 
mule. 

When  I,  standing  on  the  other  side  of  the 
street,  saw  my  brother  come  out  of  the  store  with 
the  fellow  and  walk  over  to  the  skinny  mule  and 
examine  his  teeth,  I  felt  like  dancing  a  Highland 
fling  right  there.  I  knew  my  brother  well  enough 
to  know  that  if  there  was  any  money  in  that 
man's  pocket  my  brother  could  induce  him  to  pay 
out  some  of  it. 

Pretty  soon  the  fellow  untied  the  team,  got 
into  his  wagon  and  drove  away.  My  brother  came 
over  to  where  I  stood,  and  from  the  way  he 
worked  his  jaws  over  the  plug  in  his  mouth,  I 


144      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

could  see  that  he  felt  pretty  good  about  some- 
thing. 

"Well,"  I  asked  him,  "what's  on  the  pro- 
gram?" 

"Easy  pickings,"  he  says,  "tonight  when  the 
fellow  comes  in  we  are  to  fix  that  mule's  teeth, 
and  examine  the  mouths  of  four  more." 

There  is  no  use  trying  to  write  down  how  good 
we  felt  then. 

Just  about  sun-down  they  came  in  with  his 
team  and  two  more  teams.  We  floated  all  their 
mouths,  six  of  them ;  and  the  last  two  by  lantern 
light!  When  we  finished  up,  the  fellow  paid  us 
twelve  dollars,  and  I  don't  remember  any  time  in 
my  life  when  I  felt  as  rich  as  I  did  with  my  half 
of  that  twelve  dollars  that  night. 

We  were  in  a  new  world  once  more,  and  we 
slept  a  good  sleep  in  the  hotel  that  night. 

It  wasn't  such  a  bad  little  town  after  all  and 
we  decided  to  "stick  around"  a  while. 


CHAPTER  XX 

WE  MAKE  A  HIT 

We  got  out  early  the  next  morning  and  began 
to  "mix"  a  bit  with  the  natives.  We  learned  that 
this  little  one-horse  town  was  the  supply  center 
for  an  immense  territory  surrounding  it,  and  that 
the  farmers  in  the  region  were  prosperous,  owned 
much  stock  and  had  good  crops  year  after  year 
as  a  result  of  intelligent  application  of  dry- 
farming  methods.  A  few  had  installed  private 
irrigating  systems.  We  also  learned  that  there 
was  a  quack  living  in  a  town  about  twenty-five 
miles  away  who  made  regular  trips  through  this 
region,  and  from  all  reports  he  was  "coining 
money." 

The  result  of  this  state  of  affairs  was  that  we 
stayed  in  that  little  town  for  ten  straight  weeks, 
during  which  we  did  around  six  hundred  dollars 
worth  of  work.  Besides  this,  we  enjoyed  every 
minute  of  our  stay ;  the  climate  there  at  that  time 
of  the  year  is  one  of  the  most  healthful  and  invig- 
orating in  the  United  States.  When  you  wake 
up  in  the  morning,  you  feel  like  challenging  the 
winner  of  the  last  Marathon  for  the  world's 
championship. 

My  brother  and  I  soon  felt  as  though  we 
"belonged;"  we  joined  the  local  commercial 
club,  and  were  active  members  in  the  community. 

The  little  burg  could  boast  of  a  regular  base- 
ball team,  and  when  they  discovered  that  my 

145 


146      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

brother  was  a  capable  "south-paw"  twirler,  they 
drafted  him  for  service  at  once.  In  less  than 
two  weeks  we  were  influential  townsmen ! 

Of  course,  we  didn't  advertise  the  fact  that  we 
blew  into  town  on  "rusty  runners,"  not  far  from 
being  down  and  out.  And  no  one  ever  even  had 
any  suspicions  that  we  were  ever  short  on  money, 
for  after  we  earned  that  first  twelve  dollars,  we 
kept  on  gathering  in  the  cash,  and  as  both  of  us 
were  more  than  free  spenders,  we  made  the 
impression  of  having  more  than  enough  money. 

About  a  week  after  we  arrived  in  town  a  local 
contingent  staged  a  prize  fight.  The  opposing 
scrappers  were  a  young  cow  puncher  of  consider- 
able scrappability  and  a  Frenchman  who  was  a 
helper  on  an  engine  crew  engaged  in  the  neigh- 
borhood. The  Frenchman  weighed  at  least  forty 
pounds  more  than  the  cow  puncher,  but  the  cow 
puncher's  reputation  seemed  to  offset  that. 

The  conditions  of  the  scrap  were  that  the  big 
Frenchman  must  knock  out  the  little  cow  puncher 
in  five  rounds ;  if  the  cow  puncher  was  on  his  feet 
at  the  end  of  the  fifth  round,  the  Frenchman  was 
to  be  declared  the  loser. 

All  arrangements  had  been  made  for  the  fight, 
which  was  to  be  staged  on  the  floor  of  an  imple- 
ment warehouse  where  a  "squared  circle"  had 
already  been  fixed  up.  At  the  last  moment  it 
was  discovered  that  the  fight  had  aroused  such 
enthusiasm  among  the  natives  that  it  was  an 
impossibility  to  select  a  referee  from  among  them 
who  would  be  agreeable  to  all  parties ;  every  man 
had  bet  to  the  limit  of  his  means. 


WE  MAKE  A  HIT  147 

A  conference  was  hurriedly  held  and  a  com- 
mittee sent  in  search  of  my  brother  and  myself. 
They  stated  that  they  had  been  sent  to  find  out 
whether  either  of  us  had  any  knowledge  of  ring 
rules;  that,  being  strangers  in  town  and  not 
biased  on  the  issue,  they  thought  that  one  of  us 
would  make  a  satisfactory  referee  if  we  thought 
we  could  handle  the  situation.  My  brother  turned 
them  over  to  me.  While  I  had  never  acted  in  the 
capacity  of  a  referee,  I  had  had  considerable  ring 
experience,  having  on  one  occasion  trained 
Johnnie  Madden  (one  time  bantam  weight  cham- 
pion of  the  world),  against  big  odds  in  his  fight 
with  Kid  Mitchell  of  Mexico  City.  Besides  this, 
I  had  faced  a  few  battlers  myself,  and  I  felt  that 
I  could  handle  a  match  between  a  couple  of  "bush 
leaguers"  like  these  all  right. 

When  I  informed  them  of  all  this,  they  literally 
dragged  me  over  to  the  scene  of  action,  where  I 
found  a  mob  of  fans  squatted  on  the  rafters,  on 
binders,  hay-loaders,  windmills,  and  every  other 
kind  of  equipment  with  which  the  warehouse  was 
filled.  In  the  center  of  the  floor  a  make-shift  ring 
had  been  set,  and  everything  was  ready  for  the 
bell. 

I  pulled  off  my  coat,  rolled  up  my  sleeves,  and 
called  the  participants  into  one  corner  to  get  the 
conditions  of  the  scrap  and  agree  on  rules.  We 
then  discovered  that  the  cow  puncher  needed  a 
"second,"  and  my  brother  was  selected  to  act  in 
that  capacity  at  my  request.  I  wanted  him  handy 
in  case  it  ended  in  a  rough-house,  and  this  was 
about  as  handy  as  I  could  wish. 


148      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

Now  everything  is  set ;  the  contestants  agree  to 
fight  clean,  no  hitting  in  the  clinches.  I  impress 
on  them  the  fact  that  I  am  not  going  in  there  to 
wrestle  with  them  in  the  clinches,  that  when  I  call 
4 'break"  they  are  to  turn  loose  their  hold;  that  I 
am  going  to  referee  this  little  tilt  as  though  it 
were  for  the  championship  of  the  world  and  that 
I  won't  stand  for  any  foolishness. 

I  then  introduced  them  in  the  ring,  and  stated 
"officially"  to  the  audience  what  the  terms  were, 
that  if  the  cowpuncher  was  on  his  feet  at  the  end 
of  the  fifth  the  Frenchy  was  the  loser.  The  only 
chance  the  Frenchman  had  to  win  was  to  knock 
the  cowpuncher  cold. 

I  then  made  them  shake  hands,  and  "turned 
them  loose." 

And  of  all  the  fights  I  ever  saw,  that  was  the 
cleanest,  fairest  exhibition  of  skill  and  hard- 
hitting I  ever  saw ! 

The  cowpuncher  was  speed  personified ;  and  he 
could  take  more  punishment  than  a  mule.  And  he 
made  the  Frenchman  grunt  every  time  he  landed 
on  him.  The  Frenchy  was  a  cool,  methodical 
slugger,  and  I  am  sure  was  a  very  dangerous 
opponent  over  a  longer  route.  In  less  than  three 
rounds,  however,  the  cowpuncher  had  him  looking 
like  a  steam  roller  had  dragged  him  over  a  rail- 
road bridge ;  he  could  not  bend  him  though.  Once 
he  was  down  on  one  knee,  but  he  covered  up  and 
came  back  strong. 

At  no  time  was  the  cowpuncher  in  danger  of 
being  knocked  out,  although  I  don't  believe  that 
any  other  small  man  could  stand  up  under  some 


WE  MAKE  A  HIT  149 

of  the  body  blows  that  big  Frenchman  landed  on 
him,  like  he  did. 

I  had  no  trouble  with  them  whatever;  they 
obeyed  my  calls  promptly  in  the  clinches  and  hit 
clean.  In  the  fifth  round  a  half-breed  Indian, 
who  had  bet  heavily  on  the  cowpuncher,  yelled  at 
me  because  the  Frenchman  was  holding  the  cow- 
puncher's  arms ;  I  didn't  happen  to  see  it  at  once, 
being  somewhat  enthused  over  the  exhibition  and 
forgetting  my  executive  office  for  the  moment. 

Aside  from  this  there  was  no  chance  for  a  kick 
of  any  kind. 

The  end  of  the  fifth  round  found  the  cow- 
puncher  just  getting  good,  while  the  Frenchman 
showed  plainly  that  the  speed  was  too  much  for 
him.  According  to  the  terms  of  the  match,  he 
had  lost,  and  I  raised  the  cowpuncher's  hand,  pro- 
claiming him  the  winner.  While  considerable 
money  changed  hands  after  the  fight,  there  was 
no  disorder.  I  was  the  recipient  of  many  flatter- 
ing thanks  for  the  manner  in  which  I  staged  the 
affair ;  and  it  was  really  a  fine  little  scrap. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

OUR  PRACTICE  PROSPERS 

When  we  had  thoroughly  investigated  the 
chances  for  doing  business  in  this  little  town  we 
decided  to  "stick  around"  for  awhile;  and,  as  I 
have  already  stated,  we  "stuck  around"  for  ten 
solid  weeks. 

The  way  we  went  after  the  business  there  was 
not  in  accord  with  the  general  conception  of  how 
to  conduct  an  ethical  veterinary  practice.  We  did 
not  sit  down  and  wait  for  calls ;  we  went  right  out 
after  them. 

Every  morning  about  seven  o'clock  we  would 
hire  a  team  from  the  livery  stable  and  drive  in  a 
certain  direction  until  noon,  stopping  at  every 
farm  and  ranch  to  solicit  work.  We  would  then 
cut  across  country  a  short  distance  and  work 
along  another  road,  which  would  bring  us  back 
to  town  by  night. 

We  did  this  every  day  in  the  week  except  on 
Sunday  and  on  certain  days  when  the  town  was 
full  of  farmers,  when  we  would  usually  do  a  nice 
day's  work  in  town. 

Our  livery  bill  did  not  cut  into  our  income  very 
much  because  the  liveryman  made  us  special  rates 
and  then  took  it  all  out  in  veterinary  services ;  we 
did  nearly  as  much  work  for  him  as  our  livery 
cost.  He  had  all  his  horses'  teeth  fixed,  about 
twenty  head;  had  a  number  of  ringbones  and 
splints  to  fire,  colic  cases,  coughs,  accidents,  and 

151 


152      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

other  odd  troubles.  As  the  quack  who  formerly 
did  his  work  was  in  the  habit  of  charging  him  out- 
rageous fees,  we  had  no  trouble  in  making  his  bill 
equal  ours  for  livery  hire. 

I  remember  that  for  one  period  of  about  three 
or  four  weeks  our  livery  bill  was  around  seventy 
dollars,  every  bit  of  which  he  took  out  in  veteri- 
nary services  during  the  same  period  of  time. 

After  we  got  a  good  start,  we  would  cover  a 
certain  territory  every  week,  and  we  soon  had 
cases  under  treatment  in  all  parts  of  that  district. 
The  farmers  seemed  to  take  it  as  a  regular  cus- 
tom; they  were  accustomed  to  such  veterinary 
visits,  which  had  been  made  in  this  manner  by 
quacks  for  many  years.  Before  we  left,  we  knew 
every  road  for  fifteen  miles  in  all  directions  and 
knew  nearly  every  farmer  living  around  there.  In 
a  few  directions  we  worked  as  far  as  twenty  miles 
from  town. 

We  also  got  a  chance  at  those  horses  working 
on  the  dam;  but  we  were  "double-crossed"  on  the 
job,  as  I  will  explain  later. 

We  encountered  a  few  conditions  in  this  part  of 
Idaho  which  were  entirely  new  to  us.  The  most 
common,  and  yet  the  most  interesting  of  these, 
was  lupinosis  among  horses. 

Almost  without  exception  these  cases  occurred 
in  young  horses  that  had  been  pastured  on  alfalfa 
for  a  few  weeks.  It  begins  with  a  very  severe 
form  of  scours;  the  evacuations  are  very  watery 
and  occur  frequently.  Within  a  few  days  the 
horse,  although  he  keeps  on  eating  as  a  rule,  is 
wasted  away  to  a  skeleton.    He  gets  "wabbly," 


OUR  PRACTICE  PROSPERS  153 

and  appears  bright-eyed  as  a  horse  starving  to 
death. 

About  the  third  or  fourth  day,  the  mucous 
membrane  lining  the  mouth  is  the  seat  of  ulcers, 
varying  in  size  from  a  pea  to  the  circumference 
of  a  quarter;  they  have  irregular  and  ragged 
edges  and  stubbornly  resist  ordinary  treatment. 
They  emit  a  very  foul  odor  and  slowly  increase 
in  size.  They  are  most  marked  around  the  mar- 
gin of  the  gums  and  on  the  sides  of  the  tongue. 

Later  edematous  swellings  appear  in  the  extre- 
mities and  abdomen.  Death  results,  apparently 
from  cachexia,  in  ten  days  to  two  weeks,  when  the 
horse  gets  down  and  remains  in  the  recumbent 
state  for  a  day  or  two  before  the  end. 

In  one  case  we  saw  the  ulcerations  involve  the 
skin  also. 

At  first  these  cases  gave  us  much  worry,  but 
we  found  later  that  we  could  handle  them  satis- 
factorily with  large  doses  of  oil  of  eucalyptus. 
The  ulcerative  stomatitis  was  treated  locally, 
with  Friars'  balsam. 

The  first  few  doses  of  eucalyptus  were  given 
with  a  full  dose  of  opium,  until  the  scours  were 
improved.  The  usual  treatments  for  scours  were 
of  no  avail  in  this  disease. 

Convalesence  is  very  tardy  following  an  attack 
of  lupinosis;  the  horse  is  slow  to  regain  his 
former  vigor  and  powers  of  endurance.  In  some 
cases  a  persistent  polyuria  supervenes,  which 
resists  all  treatment. 

The  only  time  I  ever  got  an  abscess  from  a 
subcutaneous  injection  was  in  a  case  of  this  kind. 


154      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

Thinking  that  possibly  the  ulcerations  in  the 
mouth  might  yield  to  poly-bacterins,  I  gave  the 
horse  a  full  dose  hypodermically.  The  result 
was  no  effect  on  the  ulcerations  but  a  large  slough 
at  the  point  of  injection,  which  was  difficult  to 
heal  up.  Of  course,  I  blamed  the  bacterins.  But 
later,  when  I  gave  this  same  horse  a  hypodermic 
injection  of  strychnin  as  a  stimulant  I  got 
another  slough.  I  have  never  been  able  to  explain 
this  to  my  own  satisfaction.  It  was  not  due  to 
careless  injection  or  dirty  needle  or  syringe, 
because  I  had  no  trouble  in  other  diseases,  for 
which  I  gave  injections  with  the  same  syringe 
and  needle  during  that  period. 

The  only  half-plausible  explanation  is  that 
there  is  a  tendency  in  this  disease  towards  the 
formation  of  ulcers  as  a  result  of  which  the  capil- 
lary circulation  is  so  subdued  that  anything 
injected  subcutaneously  remains  at  the  site  and, 
acting  as  a  foreign  body,  produces  the  slough  by 
pressure  and  decomposition  of  the  agent  injected. 
I  have  already  mentioned  that  in  one  case  we 
noted  ulcerations  on  the  skin. 

One  disease  was  conspicuous  in  this  region 
only  through  its  absence.  During  the  entire  ten 
weeks  that  we  were  there,  handling  fully  around 
four  hundred  patients,  we  saw  not  one  single  case 
of  pulmonary  emphysema.  This  we  attribute  to 
the  dry  air  and  high  altitude;  the  altitude  here 
was  around  six  thousand  feet  above  sea  level. 

A  very  interesting  condition  which  we  encoun- 
tered in  a  mare  here  was  a  cancerous  condition  of 
the  mammary  gland.     Resection  was  followed 


OUR  PRACTICE  PROSPERS  155 

rapidly  by  a  new  invasion  of  the  remaining  por- 
tion of  the  gland. 

Because  of  the  manner  in  which  we  drove  out 
to  get  our  business,  we  were  compelled  to  carry 
drugs  and  dispense.  Only  when  doing  business 
in  town  could  we  write  prescriptions  for  the  edi- 
fication and  benefit  of  our  friend,  the  druggist. 

When  he  discovered  that  our  prescriptions 
were  not  coming  in  as  fast  as  he  expected  and 
that  we  were  dispensing,  he  began  to  "rob"  us  on 
drugs.  We  had  to  buy  everything  from  him 
because  we  were  too  far  from  any  other  place 
where  we  could  get  drugs. 

We  stood  for  his  "robbery"  a  while,  and  then 
we  induced  a  storekeeper,  who  was  selling  patent 
medicines  and  crude  drugs,  to  put  in  a  line  of 
drugs  for  our  benefit.  The  fellow  was  willing, 
and  we  made  an  agreement  whereby  my  brother 
and  I  were  to  get  our  drugs  for  cost  plus  the 
freight,  and  half  the  profit  on  all  prescriptions, 
which,  of  course,  we  had  to  compound  ourselves 
as  the  fellow  was  not  a  druggist. 

This  was  an  incentive,  to  be  sure,  for  us  to 
write  all  the  prescriptions  we  could  and  cut  down 
our  dispensing  as  much  as  possible.  Within  a 
few  weeks  we  had  a  nice  share  of  profit  coming 
on  prescriptions,  but — the  fellow  wouldn't  pay 
up! 

I  will  go  into  this  fully  farther  on  in  my  story. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

WE  GET  A  RAW  DEAL 

About  four  or  five  weeks  after  we  located  in 
this  little  town  a  man  came  to  see  us  from  the 
dam-site  with  the  request  that  we  call  at  the  dam 
for  the  purpose  of  investigating  some  trouble 
they  were  having  among  their  horses. 

I  questioned  him  thoroughly  in  regard  to  the 
nature  of  the  trouble  and  was  informed  that  they 
had  been  losing  two  or  three  horses  a  week.  I 
told  him  that  we  would  go  out  and  locate  the 
trouble  and  put  a  stop  to  the  losses  for  one  hun- 
dred dollars  a  day.  If  it  could  be  accomplished 
in  one  day  that  would  be  their  good  fortune ;  if  it 
took  a  week  it  would  be  our  good  fortune.  I  gave 
them  reasonable  assurance  that  we  could  prob- 
ably complete  the  job  in  three  days  without  much 
doubt. 

The  man  returned  to  the  dam  to  report  to  the 
superintendent,  who  was  to  call  us  if  our  propo- 
sition was  satisfactory.  He  called  up  the  same 
evening,  saying  that  we  could  start  in  the 
morning. 

The  next  morning  my  brother  and  I  drove  out, 
arriving  at  the  dam  about  nine  o'clock. 

Two  horses  were  sick  when  we  got  there ;  both 
had  typical  attacks  of  acute  indigestion. 

One  of  the  men  in  charge  told  us  that  the  seven 
or  eight  horses  that  had  died  had  acted  exactly 

157 


158      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

the  same  as  these  two,  and  he  was  sure  these 
would  die  also. 

We  took  them  in  hand  and  in  an  hour  or  two 
both  of  them  were  entirely  well.  We  gave  them 
ordinary  treatment  for  acute  indigestion. 

When  we  began  looking  into  the  feed  supply, 
we  discovered  that  there  was  not  a  sprig  of  hay 
on  the  place.  There  had  been  some  hitch  in  the 
proceedings,  as  a  result  of  which  the  outfit  was 
unable  to  obtain  sufficient  hay  at  any  time.  For 
two  straight  weeks,  all  the  horses  got  nothing 
but  oats,  aside  from  a  few  handfuls  of  oat- straw 
for  roughness  now  and  then. 

We  learned  that  nearly  all  the  horses  that  had 
died  were  taken  sick  immediately  after  the  noon 
feed,  for  the  eating  of  which  they  were  allowed  a 
half  hour. 

We  took  our  time  in  arriving  at  a  verdict,  but 
the  evidence  pointed  plainly  and  unmistakeably 
to  the  unbalanced  ration,  all  oats  and  no  rough- 
ness. We  were  positive  that  this  alone  was  the 
cause  of  all  the  trouble,  and  that  same  afternoon 
we  reported  so  to  the  superintendent. 

And  he  laughed  at  us!  He  said  that  he  had 
expected  we  would  find  the  fault  with  the  feed 
and  that  he  had  made  up  his  mind  not  to  pay  us 
if  we  could  find  nothing  else. 

Of  course,  he  was  crooked;  we  discovered  later 
that  this  was  what  ailed  him.  But  we  couldn't 
talk  him  into  coming  across  with  the  hundred 
dollars ;  fifteen  dollars  is  all  we  got. 

We  kept  track  of  them  and  found  out  that 
they  immediately  got  busy  buying  hay;  also  that 


WE  GET  A  RAW  DEAL  159 

they  cut  out  the  noon  feed  as  we  had  suggested. 
And  the  trouble  stopjied  immediately,  only  one 
or  two  very  mild  cases  appearing  after  this. 

It  was  the  rawest  deal  we  ever  got  and  it  made 
us  pretty  "sore";  we  had  absolutely  no  chance  to 
get  a  square  deal  and  we  had  to  be  satisfied  with 
the  fifteen  dollars.  We  did  not  even  get  the 
satisfaction  of  speaking  our  mind ;  the  camp  was 
an  aggregation  of  "touch-mugs,"  and  while  my 
brother  and  I  had  faced  some  pretty  tough 
gangs,  we  knew  too  much  about  "safety  first"  to 
show  fight  here;  we  could  "feel  it  in  the 
atmosphere"  that  this  game  had  been  deliberately 
framed  up  on  us. 

I  don't  doubt  but  what  we  would  have  been 
"man-handled"  had  we  so  much  as  "peeped." 
However,  we  let  them  know  later  that  had  we 
had  any  premonition  that  such  a  deal  was  to  be 
pulled  on  us,  we  would  have  gotten  our  hundred 
dollars!  For  in  that  day  and  age  my  brother 
and  I  were  mighty  handy  fellows  with  a  shooting 
iron,  and  our  view  of  life  in  those  davs  was  such 
that  our  nerve  was  mighty  good,  and  we  didn't 
"scare  worth  a  darn." 

Although  we  sent  them  this  information  as  a 
sort  of  challenge,  none  of  them  ever  "called  our 
hand."  They  were  nothing  but  a  gang  of  bluf- 
fers, and  only  pulled  off  their  dirty  work  where 
they  knew  they  could  get  away  with  it. 

One  satisfaction  we  derived  later,  though;  it 
was  when  a  horse  was  seriously  injured  a  few 
weeks  later  by  falling  off  the  dump.  Of  course, 
they  could  not  send  for  my  brother  or  me,  and 


160      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

in  consequence  were  compelled  to  employ  a 
quack  who  lived  some  thirty  miles  away.  He 
charged  them  $45.00  for  the  trip;  and  the  horse 
died. 

The  fees  we  charged  for  our  work  while  we 
were  in  this  locality  were  reasonable,  all  things 
considered.  The  people  in  this  region  are  nearly 
all  Mormons,  and  while  we  found  them  a  bit  clan- 
nish, they  were  good  people;  most  of  them  paid 
cash  and  we  lost  only  a  few  dollars,  which  we 
could  have  collected  also  had  we  made  the 
attempt. 

There  is  an  item  which  must  be  considered  in 
doing  work  as  we  did  here,  and  that  is  that  the 
relation  between  the  veterinarian  and  the  client  is 
not  the  same.  It  is  probably  only  a  psychological 
difference;  but  there  is  a  difference  in  doing 
work  for  a  man  that  you  have  asked  for  or  solic- 
ited, and  in  doing  work  that  a  man  has  called 
you  to  do. 

The  veterinarian's  demeanor  towards  the  client 
must  be  most  reserved  in  the  first  instance,  and  he 
must  be  more  conservative  throughout  than  he 
usually  is  in  the  latter  instance.  In  this  connec- 
tion the  itinerant  practitioner  must  resort  to  his 
salesmanship  ability  to  the  limit,  for  it  is  often  a 
difficult  matter  to  obtain  a  certain  piece  of  work 
without  exceeding  the  bounds  of  conservatism. 
If  he  fails  to  impress  on  the  prospective  client  the 
fact  that  he  can  treat  the  case  in  question  success- 
fully, he  is  usually  not  successful  in  getting  the 
job.  On  the  other  hand,  if  his  assertions  in 
regard  to  his  ability  are  too  rash  and  his  promises 


WE  GET  A  RAW  DEAL  161 

of  results  too  broad,  he  may  involve  himself  in  a 
"guarantee"  proposition,  which  makes  it  difficult 
for  him  to  collect  his  fee. 

This  form  of  practice  is  good  schooling  for  the 
diplomatic  service;  the  veterinarian  must  avoid 
the  issue  as  much  as  possible  in  his  arguments 
and  yet  gain  his  point. 

I  have  known  some  capable  and  well-schooled 
veterinarians  who,  possessed  of  a  wandering 
spirit,  spent  the  greater  part  of  their  lives  as  itin- 
erant practitioners,  and  who  were  diplomacy  per- 
sonified. Some  of  these  men  are  most  interesting 
characters  and  a  recital  of  their  experiences  is 
always  instructive  in  every  regard. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

A  SUDDEN  DEPARTURE 

Towards  the  end  of  our  stay  in  this  little  town, 
I  met  a  cattle-buyer  who  had  lived  in  the  south- 
west for  some  time  and  who  knew  a  good  many 
of  my  old  friends  along  the  Mexican  border.  He 
was  now  in  Idaho  buying  beef  cattle  for  a  firm 
in  Reno, '  Nevada,  and  he  suggested  that  I  ride 
around  the  country  with  him  in  his  search  for  a 
train-load  of  steers. 

My  brother  was  willing  that  I  should  go,  and 
so  I  went. 

The  best  we  could  do  was  the  purchase  of  about 
nine  carloads  of  two  and  three-year-old  steers 
near  Oxford,  Idaho. 

My  new-found  friend  prevailed  on  me  to 
accompany  the  shipment  to  Reno,  which  was 
made  through  Ogden,  Utah,  and  then  across  Salt 
Lake  over  the  Union  Pacific. 

We  turned  the  cattle  over  in  Reno  and  then 
came  back  to  Ogden,  from  which  point  I 
returned  to  again  take  up  the  work  with  my 
brother.  While  in  Reno  I  was  given  an  oppor- 
tunity to  go  to  San  Francisco  with  another  ship- 
ment of  cattle,  but  I  was  "travel- worn"  to  such 
an  extent  that  the  trip  had  no  allurements  for  me. 
I  was  anxious  to  get  back  to  Idaho,  and  I  refused 
the  offer. 

When  I  returned  to  the  little  burg,  my  brother 
informed  me  that  he  had  endeavored  to  collect 

163 


164      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

our  share  of  the  profits  on  prescriptions  accord- 
ing to  the  agreement  we  had  made  with  the  store- 
keeper, but  that  the  storekeeper  had  refused  to 
settle. 

We  took  the  matter  up  with  him  again  then, 
and  he  told  us  that  he  would  share  no  profits 
until  enough  money  had  come  in  from  prescrip- 
tions to  cover  his  entire  investment  on  the  propo- 
sition. The  entire  outlay  had  been  for  a  full  sup- 
ply of  drugs,  scales,  mortars,  graduates,  bottles, 
ointment  jars,  labels,  etc.,  and  it  amounted  to 
considerable;  if  we  had  to  wait  until  he  had  his 
money  back  for  the  whole  outfit,  we  would  be 
waiting  yet. 

Of  course,  he  was  figuring  all  right  for  him- 
self, but  the  point  to  which  we  objected  was  that 
our  agreement  made  no  such  stipulation;  it  was 
clearly  agreed  that  we  were  to  get  a  dividend 
every  few  weeks.  The  reader  will  readily  under- 
that  my  brother  and  I  would  not  enter  into  a 
proposition  from  which  we  could  draw  no  profit 
for  a  year  when  we  knew  we  would  not  remain  in 
town  that  long.  The  fellow  was  "trying  to  put 
one  over"  on  us. 

But  the  poor  fellow  made  a  mistake  in  addition 
while  he  was  doing  all  this  figuring  for  himself. 

My  brother  and  I  had  about  exhausted  the 
veterinary  possibilities  in  the  region  just  then; 
the  harvest  had  been  made  and  we  could  see  a 
slackening  in  work.  We  had  seen  every  inch  of 
their  country  and  were  just  about  ready  to  "fly 
the  coop"  anyhow. 

But  it  wasn't  so  easy  to  get  away  now ;  we  had 


A  SUDDEN  DEPARTURE  165 

this  storekeeper  to  look  out  for.  He  was  loaded 
down  with  this  drug  supply  and  other  items 
depending  wholly  on  us,  and  we  feared  he  would 
create  a  disturbance  if  the  two  of  us  made  a 
move  to  quit. 

So  we  framed  up  a  one-act  drama  for  him.  It 
worked  like  this : 

A  few  days  after  he  refused  to  give  us  our 
share  of  the  profits  I  informed  him  that  my 
brother  and  I  had  decided  to  dissolve  partnership 
and  that  I  would  move  to  a  town  about  fifty 
miles  below,  while  my  brother  would  remain  to 
continue  the  practice  that  we  had  established 
here.  I  then  left,  taking  along  both  my  brother's 
trunk  and  mine. 

A  couple  of  days  later  I  sent  my  brother  a 
telegram  stating  that  I  had  an  operation  to  per- 
form that  required  his  assistance  and  requesting 
him  to  come  to  my  town,  fifty  miles  south,  at 
once. 

He  showed  the  telegram  to  everybody  in  town, 
I  guess,  as  he  told  me  afterward,  and  nobody 
"smelled  a  mice." 

In  the  meantime  I  purchased  two  tickets 
straight  through  to  Cheyenne,  Wyoming, 
checked  out  the  trunks  and  when  the  train  on 
which  my  brother  was  coming  arrived  in  my  town 
I  joined  him;  and  straight  to  Cheyenne  we  went. 

We  were  sincerely  sorry  that  we  had  to  pull  off 
this  stunt  on  the  storekeeper,  but  he  was  at  fault. 
Had  he  been  on  the  square  with  us  we  would 
have  remained  at  least  a  while  longer  and  would 
then  have  made  him  an  offer  which  would  at  least 


166      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

have  gotten  him  his  money  back.  I  have  often 
wondered  what  he  did  with  that  drug  outfit  after 
we  left. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

MY  BROTHER  FILES  A  CLAIM 

Before  I  close  the  account  of  our  experiences  in 
Idaho  I  want  to  mention  a  little  experience  my 
brother  had  there. 

After  we  had  been  in  the  state  four  or  five 
weeks  he  became  so  enamoured  of  the  beautiful 
climate  and  the  success  of  dry-farming  that  he 
decided  to  take  up  a  claim  and  make  Idaho  his 
permanent  abode. 

He  made  inquiries  among  the  natives  regard- 
ing the  location  of  land  still  open  to  settlement 
and  after  looking  over  a  number  of  tracts  he 
decided  on  a  quarter  section  of  plateau  land 
located  near  a  place  called  Pebble.  It  was  a 
most  beautiful  piece  of  land,  and  a  small  stream 
bounded  it  on  one  side. 

The  government  land  office  was  located  in 
Blackfoot,  and  to  that  place  my  brother  went  to 
file'  on  the  land.  When  he  got  to  Blackfoot  and 
pointed  out  the  location  on  the  land-map,  he  dis- 
covered that  the  piece  was  in  the  forest  reserve 
and  not  subject  to  claim. 

He  then  picked  out  a  quarter  section  near  what 
is  known  as  Ten  Mile  Pass ;  both  of  us  had  driven 
over  every  foot  of  the  country  around  Ten  Mile 
Pass  and  we  were  acquainted  with  the  nature  of 
the  land  there.    Some  of  it  was  ideally  situated. 

So  my  brother  filed  on  a  quarter  section, 
pocketed  the  papers,  and  came  back.    The  next 

167 


168      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

morning  we  hired  a  team  and  drove  out  to  look 
at  his  "claim." 

When  we  got  our  bearings  and  measured  off 
the  tract  by  counting  the  revolutions  of  a  wheel 
on  our  buggy,  it  turned  out  to  be  a  tract  of  solid 
rock,  resembling  asphalt;  not  over  ten  acres  was 
tillable  land.  A  few  miles  from  Ten  Miles  Pass 
there  is  an  extinct  volcano,  which  in  past  ages 
paved  a  great  section  of  the  country  with  lava, 
resembling  now  a  solid  covering  of  asphalt. 

Taking  it  all  in  all,  we  got  considerably  the 
worst  of  it  in  Idaho.  First,  the  "double-cross"  at 
the  dam-site;  second,  the  filing  on  160  acres  of 
stone;  third,  the  "double-cross"  bv  the  store- 
keeper.  But, — we  got  a  nice  wad  of  their  cash, 
more  than  we  could  have  gotten  for  the  same 
amount  of  work  in  any  other  part  of  the  United 
States. 

We  carry  no  grudge  against  the  region  or  its 
people ;  we  got  good  pay  for  what  we  did. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

WE  GO  ON  A  LOAFING  TOUR 

When  my  brother  and  I  made  up  our  minds  to 
leave  Idaho,  we  had  no  particular  goal  in  view; 
we  were  still  tramps. 

Arriving  in  Cheyenne  we  decided  to  take  things 
a  bit  easy  again  for  a  time ;  we  had  a  few  dollars 
in  our  pockets  now  and  we  had  just  enough 
"hook-worm  disease"  to  keep  from  exerting  our- 
selves as  long  as  our  money  lasted. 

We  took  in  the  sights  around  the  neighborhood 
of  Cheyenne,  and  then  we  took  a  run  down  to 
Denver.  In  Denver  we  spent  nearly  a  week, 
living  a  life  of  ease  and  contentment  on  the 
mony  we  had  made  in  Idaho. 

We  had  a  few  hundred  dollars  left  when  we 
finished  our  stay  in  Denver,  which  we  exchanged 
for  Travelers'  Cheques  before  leaving.  These 
checks  are  as  acceptable  as  cash  in  most  places 
and  they  are  safer  than  cash  because  the  owner 
must  endorse  them  properly  before  negotiating 
them. 

When  we  had  seen  all  there  was  to  be  seen  in 
and  around  Denver,  we  bought  tickets  for 
Omaha,  Nebraska,  where  we  put  in  another  week 
or  so  of  easy  life. 

Towards  the  end  of  our  stay  in  Omaha  we  had 
to  go  a  little  easy  on  our  expense  account  because 
it  was  about  used  up.  Not  until  we  had  only 
about  thirty  dollars  left  did  we  begin  to  give  con- 

169 


170      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

sideration  to  what  we  would  do  to  get  some  more 
money.  After  several  days  of  argument  on  the 
question,  we  decided  to  take  a  run  home  to  see 
the  folks  in  Wisconsin  and  then  decide  on  a 
definite  program.  We  had  just  about  enough 
money  left  to  get  home  in  first-class  fashion  now, 
and  we  lost  no  time  in  buying  railroad  tickets. 

We  spent  a  week  or  so  of  good  times  among 
our  people  and  then  my  brother  went  to  Minne- 
sota to  seek  his  fortune  while  I  obtained  a  place 
as  assistant  to  the  State  Veterinarian  in  our 
home  state. 

And  for  six  months  both  of  us  gave  not  a 
minute  to  play.  Then,  by  a  strange  coincidence 
both  of  us  quit  our  jobs  at  the  same  time  and 
arrived  home  among  the  folks  on  the  same  day. 

Of  course,  the  folks  are  of  the  opinion  to  this 
day  that  this  joint  home-coming  on  our  part  was 
pre-arranged ;  but  my  brother  and  I  give  you  our 
word  of  honor  as  good  fellows  that  neither  of  us 
knew  anything  about  the  other's  program  until 
we  met  there  at  home. 

However,  before  night  of  our  first  day  at  home, 
we  had  arranged  to  take  another  trip  into  South 
Dakota  as  tramp  veterinarians,  and  the  end  of 
another  week  found  us  once  more  in  Chamber- 
lain, doing  business  at  my  brother's  old  stand. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

SOUTH  DAKOTA  AGAIN 

This  second  trip  of  ours  into  South  Dakota 
did  not  turn  out  to  be  a  very  successful  venture 
from  a  financial  standpoint.  In  fact  it  was  so 
unsuccessful  that  it  just  about  cured  both  of  us 
of  our  failing  for  an  itinerant  practice. 

We  arrived  during  the  first  week  in  July,  and 
business  was  so  slow  in  starting  that  we  had  to 
resort  to  the  method  pursued  by  us  in  Idaho. 
We  would  hire  a  rig  every  morning  and  drive 
over  a  certain  section  of  road  soliciting  work. 

We  got  a  few  calls,  but  most  of  the  work  we 
did  there  on  this  trip  we  obtained  by  driving 
about  and  asking  for  it. 

On  one  of  these  drives,  we  came  to  a  farmer  for 
whom  we  had  treated  a  colt  a  year  previously, 
just  before  we  left  for  Idaho. 

The  colt  had  fallen  into  a  water  trough  and 
had  fractured  the  metatarsus  of  one  hind  leg. 
The  colt  was  six  or  eight  months  old  at  the  time, 
and  the  fracture  was  a  complete,  oblique  break 
with  considerable  displacement.  We  had  treated 
it  ordinarily,  with  wood  splits  held  in  place  by 
plaster  of  paris  bandages. 

When  we  saw  the  colt  now,  a  full  year  later, 
the  result  had  been  so  perfect  that  it  was  not  easy 
to  pick  out  the  leg  that  had  been  broken.  There 
was  a  smooth  fullness  on  the  shin  resembling  a 

171 


172      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

"buck  shin,"  but  otherwise  there  was  no  objective 
evidence  of  a  healed  fracture. 

We  also  saw  a  case  of  sweeney  that  we  had 
treated  a  year  before  by  injecting  sodium  bicar- 
bonate solution  subcutaneously  in  the  atrophied 
area.  The  muscle  had  filled  in  beautifully,  but 
at  each  point  of  injection  there  was  a  "button"  of 
fibrous  tissue. 

Another  case  we  had  treated  the  year  before, 
again  came  to  our  attention  this  year  in  a  very 
aggravated  form.  It  was  a  case  that  had  once 
been  treated  by  a  quack  for  a  necrosed  tooth;  the 
quack  had  trephined  the  superior  maxilla  for  the 
purpose  of  repulsing  the  tooth.  In  the  act  of 
repulsing,  the  punch  slipped  off  the  fang  and 
crashed  through  the  hard  palate,  coming  out  just 
inside  the  dental  arcade  and  leaving  an  ugly  hole 
on  its  withdrawal. 

When  the  case  came  into  our  hands  the  first 
time,  there  was  the  beginning  of  a  cauliflower- 
like growth  at  the  opening  made  by  the  punch  in 
the  roof  of  the  mouth ;  it  had  attained  the  size  of 
a  billiard  ball  then. 

The  horse  also  exhibited  a  severe  grade  of 
dyspnea,  which  we  attributed  to  a  similar  growth 
or  an  extension  of  the  same  growth,  in  the  maxil- 
lary and  nasal  chambers.  On  the  strength  of 
this,  we  trephined  him  again  and  removed  an 
immense  mass  of  new  growths  resembling  "proud 
flesh."  The  removal  was  accomplished  through 
the  trephine  opening,  taking  the  growth  away  in 
sections  with  a  large  curette.  A  very  profuse 
hemorrhage  ensued. 


SOUTH  DAKOTA  AGAIN  173 

The  portion  protruding  through  the  opening 
made  by  the  quack's  punch  in  the  roof  of  the 
mouth  we  removed  with  a  wire  ecraseur  and  then 
cauterized  the  base. 

The  hemorrhage  occurring  in  the  sinus  was 
controlled  with  packing. 

We  did  not  see  the  horse  again  until  now,  a 
year  later,  when  we  were  driving  in  the  neigh- 
borhood soliciting  work. 

The  condition  had  now  progressed  to  a  stage 
where  the  horse  was  a  pitiable  sight.  The  growth 
within  the  mouth  had  formed  anew  and  had 
attained  such  dimensions  that  it  was  impossible 
for  the  horse  to  close  his  mouth  entirely.  Judg- 
ing from  the  difficulty  in  breathing,  we  inferred 
that  the  growth  in  the  sinuses  and  nasal  chamber 
had  increased  proportionately.  A  stinking  odor 
was  present  and  the  horse  had  wasted  to  a 
skeleton. 

We  recommended  his  destruction. 

We  had  now  been  driving  around  the  country 
looking  for  work  for  about  four  weeks ;  we  did  a 
little  work  every  day,  but  it  was  so  little  that  we 
could  barely  pay  our  board  bill  with  the  proceeds. 

We  had  plenty  of  friends  there  and  a  good 
string  of  satisfied  clients  for  whom  we  had 
worked  the  year  previously,  but  we  could  not  get 
started  this  year ;  somehow  we  couldn't  land  any 
work  to  speak  of.  Whether  it  was  because  we 
had  lost  the  "hang"  of  talking  the  work  into  our 
hands  or  whether  it  was  just  an  "off"  year  for  us, 
I  am  not  able  to  say. 

Before  long  we  found  it  so  hard  to  make  ends 


174      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

meet  in  town  that  we  decided  to  "camp"  a  few 
weeks  with  an  old  chum  of  my  brother's  who 
lived  about  ten  miles  from  town  on  a  farm.    We 


figured  that  we  could  at  least  save  our  hotel 
expenses  for  a  couple  of  weeks,  and  we  intended 
to  get  a  rig  from  my  brother's  chum  to  use  in 


SOUTH  DAKOTA  AGAIN  175 

driving  about  the  region  in  search  of  veterinary 
work. 

The  "chum"  was  glad  to  see  us  and  invited  us 
to  "hang  around"  as  long  as  it  suited  us.  He 
said  we  could  use  one  of  his  horses  and  his  buggy 
free  of  charge  and  that  he  hoped  we  would  make 
a  barrel  of  money. 

We  felt  as  though  somebody  had  made  us  a 
present  of  a  gold  mine !  The  next  morning  after 
breakfast,  he  ordered  his  hired-man  to  put  the 
harness  on  "old  chip"  and  hook  him  to  "Lizzie's 
buggy."  We  thought  he  was  too  good  to  us  and 
told  him  we  could  just  as  well  do  the  "hitching 
up"  ourselves.  He  assured  us  that  nothing  was 
too  good  for  us.  I  asked  my  brother  what  made 
the  fellow  so  generous;  I  thought  maybe  my 
brother  had  saved  his  life  on  some  occasion  or  had 
raised  the  mortgage  on  his  farm.  He  was  "too 
nice  for  anything." 

But  when  the  hired-man  led  up  "old  chip" 
hooked  to  "Lizzie's  buggy"  I  changed  my  opin- 
ion of  the  whole  business;  I  thought  then  that 
maybe  my'  brother  had  done  him  a  dirty  trick 
once,  and  I  have  often  wished  since  that  I  had 
taken  a  picture  of  the  outfit  to  keep  as  a 
remembrance. 

"Old  Chip"  looked  to  be  about  the  oldest  chip 
off  the  block;  he  had  every  bump  on  him  that  a 
horse  can  have  and  still  retain  enough  flexibility 
to  be  able  to  walk.  He  was  so  sore  in  front  that 
a  person  felt  like  hollering  "Ouch!"  for  him  every 
time  he  put  a  foot  down.  And  the  buggy!  Did 
I  say  "buggy"?    Well,  anybody  seen  riding  in  a 


176      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

thing  like  that  was  would  certainly  be  considered 
"buggy"  in  any  civilized  country  outside  of  South 
Dakota !  Each  wheel  on  it  was  different ;  one  of 
the  front  wheels  was  as  high  as  the  two  rear 
wheels  and  the  two  rear  wheels  were  not  quite 
mates  either.  The  dashboard  was  gone,  and  the 
thills  were  about  as  heavy  as  those  they  use  on 
brewery  carts.  And  not  a  joint  in  the  whole 
machine  but  what  was  all  bound  'round  with  hay 
wire. 

Then,  to  cap  the  grand  climax,  "old  Chip"  had 
on  a  brand  new  Shears- Storebuck  harness. 

And  I  suppose  you  have  got  all  your  brain  cells 
busy  trying  to  figure  out  whether  my  brother  and 
I  drove  that  outfit  around  the  country  or  not. 
'You  bet  we  did!  We  were  glad  to  get  it,  too. 
Our  funds  were  exhausted  and  the  only  means 
we  had  of  replenishing  them  so  that  we  could  get 
away  was  by  driving  around  in  search  of  any 
work  there  might  be  for  us  to  do.  "Old  Chip" 
and  "Lizzie's  Buggy"  didn't  cost  us  a  cent  for 
hire  and  we  were  too  hard  pressed  to  look  a  gift 
horse  in  the  mouth. 

We  drove  "old  Chip"  around  that  part  of  the 
country  for  about  a  week  and  during  that  week 
my  brother  and  I  were  the  "joke"  of  the  region; 
every  farmer  we  tackled  for  a  job  in  the  veteri- 
nary line  had  some  sort  of  remark  to  make  about 
why  we  didn't  fix  our  own  horse  first,  or  some- 
thing of  a  similar  nature.  At  last  it  got  on  my 
nerves  and  I  made  it  a  point  to  start  the  talk 
about  "old  Chip"  of  my  own  accord;  in  that  way 


SOUTH  DAKOTA  AGAIN  177 

I  would  "beat  them  to  it"  and  get  it  over  with  as 
soon  as  possible. 

Just  the  same  we  earned  a  few  dollars  during 
that  week,  and  as  we  had  no  livery  or  board  bills 
to  pay  it  was  all  "velvet."  Considering  how  hard 
we  "went  after  them"  however,  we  did  a  very 
poor  business. 

As  an  illustration  of  how  hard  we  "went  after 
them"  that  week  I  will  relate  the  following.  One 
morning  as  we  stopped  at  about  the  fourth  farm 
without  having  done  any  work,  we  saw  a  farmer 
in  a  field  cultivating  corn.  We  pulled  up  to  the 
fence  and  waited  until  he  came  down  to  our  end 
of  the  field.  He  was  driving  a  team  of  pretty 
good  horses  to  the  cultivator ;  they  were  small  but 
good  chunks,  and  one  of  them  looked  just  a  bit 
thin.  We  told  the  farmer  who  we  were  and  what 
we  did  and  suggested  that  he  let  us  examine  the 
thin  horse's  teeth.  He  consented  to  have  it  done 
after  some  argument,  and  the  horse's  mouth 
really  needed  attention.  He  said  we  could  come 
around  in  the  evening  and  fix  them  up;  but  we 
were  afraid  he  might  change  his  mind  by  that 
time,  or  possibly  somebody  might  talk  him  out  of 
the  notion.  So  we  talked  him  into  the  notion  of 
having  the  job  done  right  away,  and  we  fixed 
those  teeth  right  there  in  the  corn-field.  He  had 
no  money  with  him,  so  we  got  him  to  write  a  note 
to  his  wife  ordering  her  to  pay  us  $2.50 ;  we  drove 
to  his  house  and  collected  the  money. 

On  another  occasion  we  wrote  a  prescription 
for  a  farmer  for  use  on  a  lame  horse,  charging 
him  one  dollar  for  it.     When  we  got  ready  to 


178      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

leave  he  said  he  had  no  money  in  the  house;  we 
suggested  that  he  give  us  a  check  for  the  dollar 
but  to  this  he  said  that  his  account  at  the  bank 
was  drawing  interest  and  not  subject  to  check. 

We  handled  the  situation  so  delicately  and  so 
tactfully  that  he  finally  gave  us  his  note  for  one 
dollar,  which  we  collected  too. 

No  doubt  "old  Chip"  and  "Lizzie's  buggy" 
were  the  cause  of  half  the  turn-downs  we  got ;  if 
our  own  appearance  and  our  arguments  instilled 
a  grain  of  confidence  in  our  ability  into  a  farmer 
"old  Chip"  and  "Lizzie's  buggy"  were  enough  to 
jar  it  out  of  him  again.  But,  they  didn't  cost  us 
anything,  and  it  is  a  question  whether  we  would 
have  done  much  better  with  a  livery  outfit,  for 
which  we  would  have  had  to  pay  $3.00  a  day. 

At  the  end  of  a  week,  we  were  so  disgusted 
with  the  whole  proposition  that  we  decided  to 
quit  and  leave.  My  brother  had  saved  most  all 
of  his  money  and  could  buy  a  railroad  ticket  back 
east ;  he  left  for  Tennessee  a  few  days  later,  while 
I  remained  in  Chamberlain.  I  got  a  job  packing 
cigars  in  a  cigar  factory  and  earned  enough 
money  to  pay  my  way  to  Chicago. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

BACK  TO  GOVERNMENT  SERVICE 

In  the  fall  of  1912  I  was  once  more 
appointed  to  a  federal  position,  having  taken 
the  Civil  Service  examination  again. 

This  time  I  was  put  on  post-morten  work  at 
the  Union  Stock  Yards,  Chicago. 

I  found  that  a  great  change  for  the  better 
had  been  wrought  in  this  work;  in  fact,  post- 
mortem work  as  performed  in  1904  when  I 
was  in  the  service  the  first  time  could  not  be 
compared  with  the  work  as  it  now  is. 

The  present-day  inspection  is  real,  and  aside 
from  some  local  irregularities,  for  which  the 
inspector  in  charge  was  to  blame,  I  could  see 
nothing  but  good  in  the  work.  I  can  not  say  too 
much  in  praise  of  the  work  performed  by  the 
veterinary  inspector  doing  postmortem  work 
today ;  in  fact,  some  of  the  routine  work  done  day 
after  day  by  these  men  is  a  most  wonderful  exhi- 
bition of  skill  and  expertness. 

I  remained  in  Chicago  about  four  months  at 
this  work,  when  I  resigned  and  organized  a  pro- 
prietary medicine  company. 

I  operated  this  enterprise  very  successfully  for 
myself  and  stockholders,  and  sold  my  interest  in 
it  the  next  spring  at  a  good  profit. 

When  I  had  disposed  of  my  holdings  in  the 
medicine  company  I  made  application  for  rein- 
statement in  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry, 

179 


180      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

and  received  an  appointment  in  the  tick  eradica- 
tion division  in  Mississippi.  This  made  my 
fourth  appointment  to  service  in  the  Bureau, 
and  I  must  say  it  was  about  the  worst. 

My  orders  on  this  appointment  were  to  report 
to  the  inspector  in  charge  at  Nashville,  Tenn. 
When  I  got  to  Nashville  I  was  given  a  few  hours 
to  myself  and  then  I  was  told  to  proceed  at  once 
to  Crystal  Springs,  Miss.  There  I  reported  to 
the  inspector  in  charge,  and  was  then  at  once  sent 
to  Hazelhurst,  Miss.,  which  was  to  be  my  official 
station. 

My  conception  of  tick  eradication  was  as  yet 
somewhat  vague ;  I  knew  what  the  principle  was 
but  I  had  absolutely  no  knowledge  of  how  it  was 
reached.  Imagine  my  surprise,  then,  when  my 
superior  informed  me  that  my  duty  for  the  pres- 
ent would  be  to  supervise  the  construction  of 
dipping  vats.  These  vats  consist  of  trenches  dug 
in  the  ground  and  plastered  with  concrete.  I 
began  to  suspect  that  some  mistake  had  been 
made  in  my  commission,  or  that  my  name  and 
appointment  had  been  confused  with  that  of 
some  brick  layer  or  hod  carrier,  and  I  told  the 
inspector-in-charge  so. 

"No,"  he  said,  "your  commission  is  all  right 
and  regular.  This  work  is  part  of  the  veterinary 
inspector's  duty."  I  had  a  notion  to  tell  him 
that  the  college  I  graduated  from  did  not 
include  concrete  construction  work  in  its 
curriculum. 

Anyhow,  it  is  one  of  the  pieces  of  "judgment" 
that  is  seen  quite  regularly  in  the  government 


BACK  TO  GOVERNMENT  SERVICE         181 

service ;  a  man  must  be  a  graduate  of  a  three-year 
veterinary  school  and  must  pass  the  Civil  Service 
examination  in  all  veterinary  subjects  so  that  he 
may  be  shipped  into  the  tick  country  to  supervise 
the  digging  and  plastering  of  dipping  vats. 
Aside  from  watching  one  or  two  dipping  opera- 
tions and  the  cooking  up  of  a  few  batches  of  dip- 
ping fluid,  I  did  nothing  but  "supervise"  vat 
building. 

When  I  had  been  on  the  job  about  two  weeks, 
I  was  transferred  to  Liberty,  Miss.,  which  is  near 
the  Louisiana  line.  Here  I  was  to  take  up  the 
work  of  tick  eradication  with  the  county  board 
and  to  work  out  a  plan  of  advance  work.  Before 
I  could  get  my  bearings,  I  was  again  transferred, 
this  time  to  Quitman,  Miss.,  near  the  Alabama 
line. 

In  this  latter  district  the  tick  eradication  cam- 
paign was  meeting  with  considerable  opposition 
from  the  farmers  and  stock  raisers;  a  few  vats 
had  been  blown  up  with  dynamite  and  the 
inspector  threatened. 

It  may  be  that  my  superior  officers  figured 
that,  in  view  of  my  early  experiences  with 
"rough-necks"  in  Texas,  I  should  be  just  the 
man  for  this  job.  Well,  maybe  so;  but,  nine  or 
ten  years  had  passed  since  I  last  looked  into  the 
front  end  of  a  "forty-five."  What  looks  like  fun 
and  enjoyment  to  the  lad  of  twenty-two  looks 
like  "bad  business"  to  him  at  thirty-two;  at  least, 
that  was  the  way  with  me.  Then,  too,  the 
inspector  whom  I  was  to  relieve  and  who  was 
"tickled  to  death  to  get  away"  was  a  pretty  clear- 


182      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

eyed  young  lad  from  Kansas;  no  tenderfoot  by 
any  means.  That  made  some  difference  with  me, 
too;  I  sized  the  whole  proposition  up  that  way 
and  sent  in  my  resignation,  leaving  for  the  north 
the  same  day. 

Had  the  inspector  whom  I  was  to  relieve  there 
been  a  "tenderfoot"  I  might  have  given  those 
"hill-billies"  down  there  a  whirl  for  their  money; 
as  I  said,  and  as  it  was,  he  was  a  clear-eyed  lad 
from  Kansas,  and  cold  feet  didn't  trouble  him 
much. 

An  interesting  state  of  affairs  seems  to  exist  in 
the  Bureau  service  as  regards  the  value  placed 
upon  their  positions  by  the  various  grades  of 
employes.  I  found  this  state  of  affairs  in  exist- 
ence among  the  inspectors  every  time  I  was  in 
the  service,  and  that  is  that  the  young  veteri- 
narians are  all  waiting  for  an  opportunity  to  get 
"into  something  else,"  usually  general  practice  or 
the  manufacture  of  anti-hog-cholera  serum. 
Only  on  very  rare  occasions  did  I  meet  young 
inspectors  who  intended  to  remain  in  the  service. 
Practically  the  only  ones  possessed  of  the  idea 
that  they  are  holding  a  life  berth  are  the  "old 
timers"  who  have  been  given  charge  of  some  sta- 
tion or  are  being  paid  more  than  the  average 
inspector. 

One  reason,  and  to  my  mind  the  chief  reason, 
for  this  state  of  affairs  is  the  fact  that  the  new 
appointee  or  the  inspector  in  the  ranks  receives 
little  or  no  consideration  in  matters  that  affect  his 
personal  comfort,  especially  as  regards  his 
geographical  preferences. 


BACK  TO  GOVERNMENT  SERVICE         183 

While  it  is  a  practical  impossibility  to  accede 
to  every  demand  made  on  the  executive  officers 
in  this  regard,  it  appeared  to  be  the  practice  to 
ignore  even  most  reasonable  requests.  It  was  no 
uncommon  occurrence  for  an  appointee  to  be 
ordered  to  report  for  duty  in  the  extreme  west, 
when  his  home  and  preference  for  location  lay  in 
the  extreme  east,  at  the  same  time  that  another 
man  was  shipped  from  the  extreme  west  to  take 
office  in  the  east.  A  man  had  no  chance  to  make 
a  permanent  home  for  himself  and  his  family 
either;  at  any  time  he  might  be  transferred  from 
one  point  to  another  a  thousand  miles  away.  I 
remember  the  case  of  an  inspector  in  the  post- 
mortem division  at  Chicago  who  made  every 
effort  to  obtain  a  transfer  to  a  southern  station; 
no  attention  whatever  was  given  to  his  requests 
although  a  number  of  changes  were  made  almost 
every  month  to  some  of  the  points  that  would 
have  been  agreeable  to  him.  In  several  instances 
the  men  ordered  to  make  such  changes  were 
northern  men  who  preferred  to  remain  in  the 
north,  and,  although  this  man  and  others  were 
anxious  to  take  a  southern  station,  no  attention 
was  given  their  desires. 

Again,  I  knew  of  many  instances  where 
inspectors  made  requests  for  transfer  to  field 
work,  men  who  were  exceptionally  fitted  for  field 
work  because  of  their  personality  and  their  pre- 
vious experience.  Their  requests  were  ignored, 
while  at  the  same  time  men  entirely  unfitted  for 
field  work  were  constantly  being  sent  out  on 
such  work. 


184      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

Any  inspector  can  tell  you  of  dozens  and 
dozens  of  such  occurrences,  and  it  is  one  of  the 
"sore  spots"  in  the  service,  no  matter  where  it  is. 

Here  is  another  case.  A  certain  inspector  had 
been  at  one  station  continually  for  four  or  five 
years,  long  enough  for  him  to  assume  that  he 
could  look  upon  it  as  his  permanent  abode.  He 
bought  a  lot  and  built  himself  a  home.  The  house 
was  just  about  completed  when  he  was  ordered  to 
report  for  duty  at  a  station  several  hundred  miles 
away.   This  happened  to  an  inspector  in  Iowa. 

Well,  what  could  he  do? 

He  could  do  one  of  two  things ;  either  move  or 
quit  the  service. 

And,  after  a  fellow  has  been  in  the  service  for 
five  years,  well — he  sort  of  feels  queer  about 
tackling  practice;  he  is  pretty  rusty  on  every- 
thing but  pathology,  and  he  thinks  hard  before 
he  quits.    And  usually,  he  moves. 

No  wonder  some  of  the  "old  timers"  in  the 
service  are  a  narrow,  grouchy,  sour  bunch  of  fel- 
lows.   The  service  has  made  them  so. 

Here,  for  instance,  is  a  poor  fellow  on  post- 
mortem work  in  Chicago  working  from  seven  in 
the  morning  to  six  in  the  evening  among  a  mob 
of  foreigners,  when  his  heart  is  really  in  Colorado 
or  California.  He  has  filed  a  request  to  be 
transferred  to  one  of  those  points,  and  although 
he  hears  of  some  of  the  boys  being  moved  out 
there,  fellows  who  probably  prefer  Chicago,  he  is 
kept  plugging  away  here  for  months  and  months ; 
yes,  maybe  years. 

Enough  to  make  a  good  fellow  grouchy ! 


BACK  TO  GOVERNMENT  SERVICE         185 

Of  course,  there  are  some  fellows  who  do  not 
feel  settled  anywhere,  and  they  keep  filing 
request  after  request  for  transfer  from  one  lo- 
cality to  another.  I  was  one  of  this  kind  myself ; 
I  "always  wanted  to  be  where  I  wasn't."  But 
these  fellows  are  the  exception,  not  the  rule. 

Anyhow,  to  my  mind,  it  is  a  pretty  punk  spec- 
imen of  the  veterinary  profession  that  can  not 
beat  the  Bureau  salary  and  comforts  to  a  frazzle 
in  practice!  Any  ordinary  little  practice  will 
net  a  fellow  nearly  as  much  as  the  Bureau  salary 
amounts  to;  and  you  can  be  a  human  being  at 
least, — which  is  something,  too. 


186      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 


EVERYTHING   15  ALL  RIGHT  ABOUT  THIS  5TUNT 
ONLY  TtfE  BUGGY   15  ' GREASED  'WlTH  TAR  50AP 

See  page  190 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THE  TEACHINGS  OF  TRAVEL 

Our  last  experience  in  South  Dakota  just 
about  "cured"  both  my  brother  and  me,  and  we 
have  now  settled  down,  my  brother  in  Iowa  and 
I  in  Wisconsin. 

While  we  gained  nothing  from  a  financial 
standpoint,  we  learned  many  lessons  that  are  as 
good  as  cash  invested  in  substantial  enterprises. 

One  of  the  big  lessons  we  learned  early  in  our 
experience  is  the  custom  of  "clique  rule,"  which 
exists  in  all  small  towns,  and  which  is  one  of  the 
most  important  factors  bearing  on  a  practitioner's 
popularity  in  a  small  town.  Ninety  per  cent  of 
the  inhabitants  of  all  small  towns  are  not  con- 
scious of  the  existence  of  "clique"  influence  al- 
though they  are  active  members  of  such  cliques. 

When  a  practitioner  first  locates  in  a  small 
town,  and  it  makes  absolutely  no  difference  what 
or  where  the  town  is,  he  must  refrain  from  becom- 
ing enmeshed  in  one  or  the  other  of  these  cliques, 
and  this  he  can  do  best  by  forming  no  fast  or 
particular  friendships  until  he  gets  the  lay  of  the 
land.  In  a  small  town  you  are  either  a  "friend  of 
mine"  or  an  enemy;  a  "middle"  existence  is 
almost  impossible.  If  it  is  true  that  it  is  hard 
for  a  practitioner  to  do  well  in  his  "home"  town, 
this  is  the  chief  reason;  he  belongs  to  a  certain 
clique  and  does  not  realize  it. 

187 


188      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

It  is  hard  to  make  this  plain  in  writing,  but 
here  is  the  way  to  keep  out  of  "cliques": 

1.  Refrain  from  discussing  personalities. 

2.  If  there  are  two  barber  shops  in  your  town, 
divide  your  patronage  between  them;  a  barber 
can  do  more  harm  to  you,  if  you  are  unpopular 
with  him,  than  any  other  man  in  town. 

3.  If  your  office  is  on  the  north  side  of  town, 
let  yourself  be  seen  on  the  south  side  occasion- 
ally ;  if  you  hang  too  close  on  the  north  side,  you 
will  soon  get  into  a  little  circle  of  acquaintances 
who  will  dominate  your  every  move;  in  other 
words,  you  will  drift  into  a  "clique."  "Big  city 
fellows"  can't  see  the  point  here,  but  "small  town 
men"  will  know  what  I  mean. 

One  reason  for  the  existence  of  cliques  in  small 
towns  is  the  fact  that  nearly  all  small  towns  are 
so  full  of  competition  in  all  lines  of  commercial 
endeavor  that  business  absolutely  controls  friend- 
ship. You  can  theorize  on  this  issue  from  now 
until  the  day  of  judgment  and  I  can  knock  all 
your  best  arguments  cold  with  wallops  of  actual 
experience  and  observation  in  more  than  five 
hundred  small  towns. 

Another  lesson  we  learned  is  that  the  small 
town  is  just  as  rotten  in  morals  as  Chicago  or  any 
big  city.  I  don't  care  where  your  small  burg  is 
situated  or  how  well  you  think  you  know  your 
town;  you  don't  know  much  about  anybody  out- 
side of  the  clique  you  belong  to.  You  stand  for 
hours  talking  over  personalities  about  those  out- 
side your  clique,  but  you  don't  say  much  worth 
while  listening  to.  A  live  tramp  can  show  you 
the  black  spots  in  your  burg,  black  spots  that  are 


THE  TEACHINGS  OF  TRAVEL  189 

blacker  than  any  you'll  find  in  the  big  cities ;  and 
he  does  not  have  to  be  among  you  over  forty- 
eight  hours  either. 

On  this  point  I  want  to  say  that  we  found  the 
cleanest  towns  (small  towns  I  mean),  speaking 
from  the  standpoint  of  morals,  among  the  much 
maligned  Mormon  inhabitants  of  the  west;  and 
the  rottenest  small  towns,  morally,  we  found  in 
the  middle  west,  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the 
Missouri  river. 

Another  thing  we  learned  is  that  the  average 
farmer  has  less  judgment  in  the  handling  of 
horses  than  the  city  horseman.  I  do  not  hesitate 
to  say  that  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  trouble 
farmers  have  with  their  stock  is  the  result  of  poor 
judgment  displayed  in  feeding  and  working. 
And  fully  half  the  losses  they  suffer  from  live 
stock  diseases  are  the  result  of  poor  nursing.  If 
I  must  treat  a  severe  case  of  any  disease,  give  me 
anybody  but  a  farmer  to  do  the  nursing. 

We  also  learned  that  while  the  man  who  suc- 
ceeds over  a  period  of  time  must  deal  squarely  and 
"deliver  the  goods",  ninety  per  cent  of  all  farm- 
ers we  had  anything  to  do  with  "want  to  be 
humbugged  by  strangers";  "and  the  slicker  you 
do  'em  the  better  they  seem  to  like  it."  P.  T. 
Barnum  meant  the  rural  population  when  he  re- 
marked "thusly"  years  ago;  and  it  holds  good 
today  in  spite  of  all  this  nonsense  about  the  farm- 
er not  being  a  "rube"  any  more.  Nine  times  out 
of  ten  he  is  "easy  picking"  for  a  stranger  and 
"snap"  for  the  traveling  faker. 

I  have  known  the  old  "soap  trick"  to  be 
pulled  off  in  one  of  the  best  dairy  sections  of  Wis- 
consin, where  the  farmers  are  supposed  to  be 


190      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

examples  of  wisdom  and  enlightenment.  This 
trick  is  "pulled  off"  about  as  follows,  and  has 
been  pulled  off  just  that  way  for  fifty  years. 

A  good  appearing  fellow  "blows  into"  a  town 
on  County  Fair  day  or  some  other  big  occasion; 
he  drives  a  fine  horse  and  buggy  and  by  giving  a 
talk  gets  a  gathering  of  farmers.  He  tells  them 
he  is  selling  the  only  soap  on  earth  capable  of  re- 
moving grease  from  clothes  or  hands  by  merely 
washing  with  it  in  cold  water.  To  prove  it  he 
jumps  out  of  his  buggy,  takes  a  wrench  and 
removes  a  wheel  and  with  his  nice,  white  pocket 
handkerchief  wipes  the  grease  out  of  the  box  and 
axle.  He  then  rubs  some  of  his  soap  on  the  hand- 
kerchief, washes  it  in  a  basin  of  cold  water  and 
the  handkerchief  comes  out  white  as  snow. 

The  farmers  can't  get  their  money  out  quick 
enough,  and  the  fellow  sells  a  couple  gross  of 
two-cent  soap  at  ten  cents  a  bar  in  a  few  minutes. 

Everything  is  all  right  about  this  stunt;  only 
the  buggy  was  "greased"  with  black  tar  soap. 

I  am  just  mentioning  a  few  of  these  things,  not 
because  I  am  down  on  the  "poor"  farmer;  I  do 
business  with  the  farmer  every  day,  and  I  get 
along  fine  with  him;  but,  because  this  constant 
noise  about  the  farmer  being  so  much  brighter 
and  having  better  brains  than  he  used  to  have  is 
sickening  to  a  fellow  who  has  seen  them  as  I 
have.  Sure,  some  farmers  are  a  little  "smarter" 
than  their  grandfathers  were;  but  most  of  their 
knowledge  they  got  out  of  Spears- Sawbuck  or 
Jontmomery-Board's  catalogues. 

To  the  man  who  knows,  the  man  who  has  seen 
farmer  after  farmer  and  town  after  town  with  an 
observing  eye  and  an  open  mind,  this  talk  of 


THE  TEACHINGS  OF  TRAVEL  191 

improved  farmers  is  just  as  foolish  as  the  talk 
about  the  small-town  girl  going  wrong  in  the  big 
city.  Nine  times  out  of  ten  the  "going  wrong" 
took  place  in  the  small  town  before  she  ever  saw 
the  bright  lights.  If  I  had  a  young  daughter,  I 
would  much  rather  see  her  grow  up  in  the  big  city 
than  in  a  small  burg.  If  you  are  a  city  fellow 
with  a  growing  daughter  and  want  her  to  lose  her 
virtue  quickly,  let  her  visit  some  small  burg  a 
few  months  with  no  more  chaperoning  than  a 
country  girl  gets  in  a  big  city ;  if  she  succeeds  in 
going  straight  for  more  than  two  weeks  after 
she  gets  there,  it  will  be  because  she  has  been 
quarantined  for  small-pox  or  something  of  that 
sort.  I  am  merely  stating  a  bold  truth.  Although 
I  was  raised  in  the  city  I  have  lived  off  the 
farmer,  in  small  towns,  for  the  last  fifteen  years 
and  I  am  anything  but  prejudiced  against  the 
farmer. 

Among  the  lessons  we  learned  of  a  purely  vet- 
erinary nature,  one  sticks  out  most  prominently, 
and  that  is  that  most  practitioners  work  too 
cheaply;  they  don't  get  enough  money  for  what 
they  do. 

Another  lesson  we  learned  is  that  a  large, 
unopposed  field  for  practice  usually  means  a 
poor  field.  For  this  reason  so  many  locations 
seem  to  be  vacant  in  the  west ;  they  will  not  sup- 
port a  veterinarian.  In  this  we  are  reminded  of 
a  remark  an  old  practitioner  was  in  the  habit  of 
quoting:  "Where  you  see  the  greatest  number 
of  bees,  you  will  find  the  most  honey" — an  argu- 
ment he  used  against  such  locations. 

There  are  in  the  west  numberless  towns  of 
from  two  thousand  to  four  thousand  population 


192      THE  ITINERANT  HORSE  PHYSICIAN 

without  a  veterinarian.  The  surrounding  coun- 
try is  apparently  well  settled,  but  when  you  come 
to  investigate  you  find  that  the  farmers  are  poor, 
with  not  much  prospect  for  ever  getting  rich  or 
even  well  off.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are 
towns  of  around  a  thousand  inhabitants  a  little 
further  east  supporting  two  or  three  veterinari- 
ans. We  remember  one  town  of  ten  thousand 
people  that  could  not  support  one  practitioner 
decently. 

Were  I  to  move  into  a  new  location  today,  I 
should  prefer  a  strenuous  competitive  practice  in 
the  middle  west  to  a  large  unopposed  field  in  the 
west.  An  itinerant  practice  I  would  have — 
NEVER  AGAIN! 

I  am  not  sorry  one  whit  for  the  years  I  spent 
"knocking  around";  every  day  something  turns 
up  which  makes  it  possible  for  me  to  make  good 
use  of  the  experience  I  got  during  that  period. 
This  is  especially  true  as  regards  the  use  of 
money ;  I  can  make  a  dollar  go  farther  today  than 
any  other  man  I  know  of ;  and  that  is  something. 

Whether  I  will  ever  have  a  relapse  of  the  wan- 
derlust, I  cannot  tell;  so  far  not  a  symptom 
appears.  In  concluding  I  will  say  that  I  have 
probably  had  a  career  as  varied  as  ever  a  graduate 
veterinarian  had.  I  have  seen  and  performed 
every  form  of  work  along  veterinary  lines  under 
the  most  varied  conditions.  Country  practice, 
city  practice,  state  work,  government  work  in 
both  post-mortem  and  quarantine  divisions,  drug 
salesman,  manager  of  a  pharmaceutical  concern, 
department  editor  of  a  veterinary  magazine; 
in  fact,  every  line  of  veterinary  work.  And  the 
best  is  yet  in  me. 


Webster  Family  Library  of  Veterinary  Medicine 

Cummings  School  of  Veterinary  Medicine  at 

Tufts  University 

200  Westboro  Road  y 

North  Grafton,  MA  01536  ,^ 


/ 


